


No One Prays For the Condemned

by Gameguy1992, Memoryweaver1



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Dark Nick, Demons, Evil, F/M, Hunter - Freeform, Monsters, Psychological Torture, Religious overtones, Seduction, Smut, Supernatural - Freeform, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:20:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22390180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gameguy1992/pseuds/Gameguy1992, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Memoryweaver1/pseuds/Memoryweaver1
Summary: In the world of Zootopia there are monsters. Not just savage predators and psychopaths, but real true monsters. Judy as a police officer and a hunter is tasked with hunting down those monsters and putting them down. But what happens when one of those monsters isnt what it appears to be? What happens when a hunter meets a monster who wants what was taken from it? Can Judy trust the monster? Can a monster be anything else?
Relationships: Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde
Comments: 54
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Dont worry folks im not starting a whole new story.  
> just had this sitting in my catalog for a while and wanted to finally post it.

_ Why do they always fucking run?! _

Her feet pounded against the pavement as she ran. Chasing the weasel who only moments ago he had been trying to rob the bodega where she had been trying to buy coffee to get her through the last two hours of her patrol shift. Thank god they were in Middlesberg a place for mostly smallish to medium species. If she'd had to chase him while dodging elephants and rhinos this would have been so much harder. As it was it was already tricky. The weasel had a head start and as he ran he was knocking people out if the way, which did make it slightly easier for her to follow him. At the same time though he was knocking over anything he could. Trashcans, newspaper vending machine, even a shelf full of books outside of a bookstore. She avoided all the obstacles, her rabbit biology giving her a naturally athletic physique, but he was getting desperate. which meant he was getting closer to doing something stupid. As they darted across the street and down an alleyway she shouted at him. “The littering ticket is gonna be worse than the robbery!” 

He didn't respond, instead darting sideways around the corner of the abandoned building they were running along. Following him she was just fast enough to see the weasel yank open a door to the building before rushing through it and slamming the door shut. She charged for the door, grabbing its handle and-

The door didn't move. She pulled on it again, and again the door didn't budge. From inside the building she could hear him laughing “lata coppa.”

She growled, taking a step back. Technically she wasn't supposed to do this. But he'd made her chase him, cause how many dollars in damages both to persons and to property and on top of that he'd made her miss her noon coffee; She. Was. PISSED. Focusing her energy she did as she'd learned those years ago.  _ Feel the energy inside you, flowing through  _ you.  _ Gather the energy. Focus it into your hand. Compress it. Then, USE IT. _

she released the energy, her hand striking the locked metal door which bent inwards from her touch. Peeling backwards in a while similar to how some people folded a book. It wasn't completely open, but it was more than open enough for her to scramble through. As she did so she drew her taser. Out in the streets had been one thing. If he'd tried to attack her she could see it coming. But here, inside this abandoned building, he could be lurking, hiding, waiting for her to walk past a shadowy doorway or alcove. She moved quickly but cautiously. It had been awhile since anyone had been in here. The dust on the floor was almost undisturbed, save for the prints the weasel had left as he'd run. She followed the tracks, moving down a dark hallway before emerging into a large open space. She could see him now, the weasel was on the far side of the room, frantically pulling on another door which didn't move. His head snapped to her as she stepped into the room. “put your hands up!”

As she spoke she aimed her taser. She was still too far away to use it. Even with the projectile version she had, it only worked at about 50 feet. And he was at least 150 feet away. But she'd learned long ago that sometimes just aiming her weapon could be enough. sadly in this case it was not. The weasel growled and spun around, the small revolver he'd tried to rob the bodega with coming up. “FUCK OFF COP! GO EAT A DONUT!”

she dove for cover, managing to duck behind a metal barrel of some kind as three shots rang out. Mentally she rolled her eyes. She hadn't gotten a great look at the gun. But for its size it could only have six to eight shots. He'd wasted almost have his magazine and hit nothing. But she was still to far away and if she stuck her head out to far or tried to rush him. She'd probably get shot. “YOU'RE NOT GETTING OUT OF HERE WEASEL! PUT THE GUN DOWN!”

His response was to fire two more rounds at her. “Fuck that!”

She weighed her options. He was pretty dumb. she could probably goad him into firing the last of his bullets. Then again he might have more. Probably not, but maybe. And each shot he fired was another random chance it could hit someone. She needed to end this quickly. Taking a chance she shifted leaning very carefully over to see-

**LOOK OUT**

The voice in her head told her just in time. Making her yank her head back behind the metal batel just as a bullet flew by where she would have been moments ago. That shook her slightly. Making her take a deep breath before looking around. The voice had to have come from someone. Even she didn't just hear voices from nowhere. A second later she found the source, a faint shimmering fuzzy image of… a wolf? A coyote? Some kind of canid for sure; standing next to her and looking down at her. She smiled. something she'd learned the dead appreciated. Under her breath she spoke. “did we disturb you?”

The ghostly canid nodded. She smiled sheepishly. “sorry about that. Duty calls. You know?”

Again the ghostly canid nodded. Across the room the weasel shouted. “WHO YOU TALKING TO COP?! YOUR FAIRY GODMOTHER?! MORE LIKE FAIRY GOD PIG!” another shot accompanied his terrible insult.

She ignored him, focusing on the spirit next to her. “help me get him and the sooner we can leave you in peace. Sound good?”

The spirit remained motionless for a moment. She bit her lip. Maybe that was asking a bit much. She didn't know anything about this spirit. The canid could be some kind of psycho or serial killer for all she knew. It-

The spirit nodded and began to move. Calmly walking away from her and towards the weasel. As it did so she called out. “last chance weasel, put down your weapon and get on the ground or else!”

The weasel fired another shot in response. This time she really did roll her eyes.  _ Gods above he’s dumb.  _

She took a chance again. Peeking out from the barrel towards the weasel. The spirit was almost on him now. She watched as the weasel leaned around the stone column he'd been hiding behind, no doubt looking to see what she was doing. Unseen the spirit moved. Its hands reaching out, not for the weasel as she'd expected. But instead to a pipe that ran just above the weasel’s head. A second later the pipe groaned, the who knew how old metal straining as the spirit's energies came into contact with it. A second later it broke, the metal cracking and sheering away. She watched as water erupted from the now broken pipe, now controlled by gravity as it fell in a massive torrent right onto the weasel.

“Wha the fuck?!”

She took the chance. As the weasel floundered and staggered, trying to stay upright under the force of the sudden burst of water she began to move. She leapt over the the barrel she'd been using as cover, charging as fast as she could towards the weasel. The spirit had vanished now. That was fair. They'd disturbed it. No reason it should stick around after it had helped. She could see the weasel now. Coughing and spluttering. His clothes and fur now soaked by the water. She urged her feet to move faster, with the weasel being all wet and standing in a puddle of water, her taser wasn't an option. She'd have to do this the old fashioned way. She watched as his head snapped up. His eyes going wide as he realized how close she was. He moved, trying to bring the gun up. But it was to late. She lept at him. One of her legs lashing out in a powerful kick that collided with the weasel's face. 

The weasel staggered under the force of the blow. Stumbling backwards for a moment off balance. She seized that moment, dropping to the ground and spinning; sweeping his legs out from under him, making him fall to the ground. Just as she'd been taught, she went for the hand holding the weapon. Her hand grabbed the gun, not yanking it towards her but rather pushing it backwards towards him. The move was simple enough, push back to far and she'd overextend the joins in his-

“GAH!”

There it was. A second later she drove her knee into his armpit making his entire arm go numb for a few seconds. It was all the time she needed. With his grip weakened she grabbed the gun and pulled it from his grasp. Throwing it along the floor where it skittered away. Her hand went to her belt. To the stun dart all officers were used for close quarters takedowns. even as the weasel struggled weakly she pulled the dart free from its holster, jamming it against his side making him yelp for a moment. “AH-gaaaa.”

Mid yelp the weasel's voice changed. A sudden wave of casualness washing through it as the dart took effect. “wha… wha… wa ya da to meh?”

She ignored him. Spinning him onto his chest before bringing his hands behind his back and cuffing them. the darts effects were temporary, only lasting five to seven minutes. Plenty of time to drag his ass back to the car she'd left in front of the bodega. But first she needed to gather up his gun. She stood up, watching as the weasel struggled faintly against the cuffs, the dart's drugs making him loppy and dumb...er. “awww da da cop wike bonage?”

She rolled her eyes again. She turned away from him, moving towards where the gun had landed when she'd thrown it away. It had gone further than she'd expected it to, having flown across the room before coming to a stop a short ways away from a stairwell that seemed to lead down into the basement of the warehouse. She'd just touched the gun, her fingers brushing against its grip when she felt it. A chill, like her whole body was plunging into an ice bath or a river in winter. She reacted out of instinct and training. Ducking to the left her hand slipped down, not to her nightstick or her gun but instead to the small totem she kept in her pocket. To anyone else it looked like a metal crossguard from a medieval dagger, actually that was just was it was. But instead of a metal blade the guard was empty; that was until she touched it. Brining the toten up Judy watched as a kind of silver liquid flowed from the guard, twisting and forming a blade of her design as she brought it up. 

The spirit from before had returned. It stood staring at her, watching her, not normally a good sign. Her eyes narrowed, readying herself for a possible fight. Spirits could be tricky. She couldn't outrun them, not unless she left the warehouse. And there was no using brute force as spirits were immune to most spells and weapons. That left her with her blade and soulfire. The blade was a powerful weapon, controlled by her mind and willpower; it could take the form of any blade she wanted. And it had been blessed so it would cause any monster cut by it a great deal of pain. She'd found in amung a stash of magical trinkets she, dan and sean had uncovered after handling a Jinn. Soul fire was something very different all together. A kind of spectral flame that could damage spirits and ambient energies without harming the physical world. she could certainly conjure and use it, but would-

her train of thought ended as the spirit moved, its arm lifting as it pointed to the stairs leading down. She looked from the spirit to the stairs. “what?” The spirit gestured silently again. “down? You want me to go down there?” the spirit nodded. Her eyes narrowed slightly. “are you going to try and kill me if i do? Or attack me?” the spirit shook its head. For a moment she stayed how she was, blade out in front between her and the spirit. She knew spirits couldn't lie, it was a condition if being dead. But at the same time… it was still a ghost asking her to go into some dark spooky place. She'd seen enough horror movies to know that's how they usually started.

After another moment she lowered but didn't recall her blade. She'd keep it handle, just in case. “ok. I'll go. But only if you make sure he,” she pointed to the still cuffed and loppy weasel. “doesn't run off.” The spirit turned to look at the weasel before nodding. As the spirit began to move towards the weasel she spoke to it. “don't hurt him. Just watch him.” the spirit didn't respond, not that she'd expected it too. Turning towards the stairs she moved, keeping her blade ready as she looked down the darkened decent. Taking a deep breath she reassured herself. She had her knife. which was powerful enough to take down anything short of a a wraith. And her abilities meant she could put up one hell of a fight if anything else was lurking down here. Slowly she descended the stairway, noting how the ancient metal steps creaked and groaned under her feet. “cliche much?”

The stairway led her down a story, emerging her into a darkened underground hallway where the only source of light seemed to be the faint sunlight that filtered down the stai-

She grunted in pain as she felt it. A tingling buzzing in the back of her head, the kind that told her there was something here. Some kind of residual energy from a past event. The result if repeated exposure to powerful magic or emotions. It had marked this place, saturating the walls, the floor and even the ceiling. To most people they'd probably just feel a sense of unease. But she wasn't like most people, she could feel more. There was… fear in this place. Not just the fear of a dark scary place but…

She grunted again, the feelings getting stronger. Fear, terror, confusion. It was almost overwhelming. In the faintest reaches of her mind she could hear voices. The sounds of struggling, pleading, laughter and… hunger?

She gripped her blade a bit tighter, slowly moving down the darkened hallway. As she did so a new feeling rushed through. Hunger, gnawing twisting almost mind numbing hunger. Not for food. Not for sex. Not for anything other than… blood. Warm rich life giving blood. She froze in her tracks. She knew this feeling. She'd felt it before. It could only mean one thing. thank gods it was daylight outside. If it had been dark or even sunset she and the weasel would probably have been torn apart and being drained by now… if they were lucky. At the far end of the hallway she could make out a large metal door, and as her gaze moved along its surface more voices tickled her mind. The sounds of laughing, of crying and then a kind of shriek that made her skin prickle and her fur stand on end. She knew what was on the other side of that door. And she'd have to do something about it. But not now, not on her own. And certainly not with a helpless defenseless snack just waiting to be snatched upstairs. She hurried from the dark hallway, rushing back up the stairs and into the safety of the sun lit room. As quickly as she could she grabbed the weasel, dragging him to his feet. As she did so she glanced at the spirit who was still standing there. she jerked her head towards the stairs. “they what killed you?” The spirit nodded silently. She nodded back. “ok. I'll deal with it later.”

\------------

By the time they made it back to her cruiser, the weasel had begun to recover from the effects of the dart. For the last block his struggling Had become a bit more animated and forceful. Opening the door to the back seat Judy pushed him inside and slamming the door behind him. Pulling her phone from her pocket she opened her contact list and scrolled through it, coming to a stop next to the contact labeled ‘Elder’. Opening the contact her fingers danced over the screen, rapidly typing out a message before pressing send.

Found vamp next in middleberg. Abandoned building. LOT of bad energy. Need dealt with. 

Putting the phone back in her pocket Judy sighed. So much for taking an easy night tonight. Climbing into the cruise Judy started the engine, pulling out from the spot in front of the bodega and heading towards city center. From his spot in the backseat the weasel was coming back around, groaning weakly and occasionally swearing. She ignored him, looking out the windows at the passing city. Vaguely she wondered if she should tell him about the danger he'd been in. Disturbing a restless spirit could be dangerous enough, she'd seen that go bad a few times. But also finding themselves so close to a hive of vampires? that was almost a disaster. 

“wha- what's that toste? Wha did you do ta me cop?”

She continued to ignored him. her eyes half focused on the people walking along the sidewalks, blissfully ignorant of so many things. She'd been like them once. She'd always been a little odd, getting funny feelings every now and then. ‘don't go down that street’. ‘watch this person’. ‘something isn't right here’. She'd never really known why or where the feelings had come from, but more often than not they were right. When she'd turned 16 she'd started to notice them more. The feelings were stronger, but so were other things. Pricklings and whispers in the back of her mind. The faint feelings that she wasn't seeing things as they really were. But she hadn't gotten answers until she'd turned 19. She'd been alone one night, walking home from studying in the police academy library when a sudden feeling of dread had almost overwhelmed her. It had been cold, like walking in the snow bare ass naked, cold. Something in her mind had told her to get off the road, to hide. She'd done so, hiding in a series of bushes and shrubs along the road. For a few minutes she'd felt dumb. But then-

She'd seen her first monster that night. Later she'd learned it was called a Ruegeru; a creature of hunger and rage that looked like a half lizard half insect dog the size of a lion. It had burst from the trees on the other side of the road lumbering into the spot she'd been in before. It had been terrifying. No doubt it would have killed her if she'd have still been standing there. She'd met her first hunters that night too, two brothers, Sean and Dan who'd been hunting the Ruegeru that night. They'd fought the creature, somehow managing to kill it by cutting off its head in a shower of black blood and ichor. But in that split second something had come over her. A pain had exploded in her head. Like a white hot needle being forced through her skull. a loud screaming voice had ripped through her mind and mouth. Revealing her presence to the brothers. She'd blacked out from the pain and when she'd woken up she'd been somewhere new. A library, laying on a comfy couch with an older bobcat smiling down at her; who she’d later learned was named Jasper. She'd learned a lot that night. She'd learned monsters were real, and that many of them were dangerous. She'd learned about hunters, men and women of any and every species who fought back against the monsters in a kind of shadow war that was almost as old as history itself. She'd learned of angels from the kingdom of heaven and demons from the pits of hell. She'd learned that her feelings weren't just random, but a gift, a skill. She'd learned of what she was, an exorcist. Someone deeply connected with spiritual and psychic energies of the world. And that the pain she had felt was called a death echo, the result of the monster’s soul being dragged to hell.

Anyone else would have thought it was a joke. Anyone else would have thought sean, dan, and the bobcat were crazy. Anyone else would have just laughed uncomfortably then gotten up and never looked back. She hadn't. Sometimes she wished she had. It hadn't made her life any easier. Then again. She supposed it had helped a time or two. The training she was put through during the academy meant that when jasper had started to train her as a hunter, she was already a step ahead. At the same time the extra training with jasper had helped her excel at her training in the academy. As a result she'd graduated top of her class and been assigned to precinct one in the center of the city. Of course there were times it made her life harder. When a case popped up that was clearly caused by a monster. Or when she was forced to use hunter tactics to fight a criminal and then explain them to her superiors. It wasn't always easy. It wasn't always hard. It was just a job, her job; just trying to make the world a better place.

\---------

Precinct one was a bustle of activity. Even as she dragged the weasel behind her people called to her. 

“hey Judy.” “another collar?” “you go bunbun!” 

she waved and smiled pleasantly at them, dragging the weasel to holding before starting on the incident report of what had happened. Of course she left out the part about the ghost helping her and the nest of vampires she'd found. Her superiors would think she was insane. Sometimes she wondered if she was. She was a cop. Sworn to uphold and protect the law and the citizens of the city. At the same time she occasionally broke those laws. Going on hunts when a nasty monster appeared in the city. Or tweaking police reports when a hunter's activities were spotted by a witness. Although she made it very clear she wouldn't do that unless it was an emergency. She still believed in the law, in what it meant and stood for. At the same time though, the law was not made to handle vampires and demons and vengeful spirits. So sometimes that meant hunter had to take the law into their own hands. Like with this vampire nest. She knew what would happen. Vampires were some of the worst of the worst. Cruel, Sadistic, they took glee in toying and tormenting their victims until ripping them apart while they were still alive and pleading; drinking their blood and eating their flesh until nothing but bones were left. There was no reasoning with them, no trial to put then through. There was just a call to arms from the local hunters and a raid on the nest to kill the vampires. One she would no doubt be called to join. There was no way she wouldn't be. 

As far as she knew she was the only exorcist in the city. Sure there were other ‘gifted’ individuals. Dozens of mediums, psychics, not to mention the witches and hags that practiced magic and she was sure many others who either didn't wish to be known or perhaps were like she had been and just didn't know what they were. But in a fight with monsters, she had a clear advantage over most peo-

Her phone buzzed, making her pull it from her pocket. For a moment she looked at the illuminated lock screen. In it a photo of her mom and dad hugging her when she'd graduated from the police academy. Easily the best day of her life.  _ I should call them sometime. It's been a few months since we talked.  _ She missed her family. She rarely got out of the city, and when she did it was usually only for a day or so. Maybe she'd use some vacation time, go visit them for a few days. Enjoy the country air, the open spaces.

Unlocking her phone she glanced at the message she'd been sent. 

Party tonight. 9pm. Bring essentials. We'll bring the beats. Lets keep it down.

She smiled slightly at the message. Since what they were doing was illegal. They couldn't just send messages saying ‘gonna go kill vampires. Bring your hunter tools and lets keep people from finding out’. So instead they communicated in these kinds of codes. They were easy enough to understand. But sometimes were a little silly for others to see. Once she had gotten a message talking about a succubus that was on the loose, and when her parents had seen it they'd thought she was doing something illicit. Finishing up her paperwork Judy left her desk, stretching slightly as she waved goodnight to the few officers she passed before exiting the precinct and heading to catch the train to her apartment. Luckily the train was running on time and she managed to get to her apartment with a few moments to spare. She grabbed her bag from under the bed, pulling it open and taking a quick inventory of the items within. 

Her old stab proof vest from the academy. She'd swiped that rather than turn it in like she was supposed to. It had been more out of nostalgia than anything else. True she needed some kind of protective gear, jasper had offered to get her a new one even. But she'd trained in this for almost two years. She knew everything about it and it provided a kind of psychological boost to her. A feeling of safety filling her whenever she out it on. Just behind the vest was the pistol Sean and Dan had given her. It was untraceable and the riffling had been altered so there was no way forensically to tell if it had been used before. Plus it had been modified to fire several types of special rounds and blessed so monsters couldn't touch it without feeling pain. Next some simple first aid equipment, bandages, gauze, antiseptic. Perhaps a little mundane but useful for injuries that always seemed to happen during hunts. Then a leather bound book, the bestiary Jasper had given her when she'd completed her training and become a full hunter. Inside its pages, information on hundreds of monsters and demons as well as tips and tricks on how to kill them. And lastly an array of lesser tools, lockpicks, flashlight, a few boxes of specialized ammunitions. Everything she'd need if others were bringing the main equipment they'd need. 

Tossing the bag onto her bed she moved, quickly stripping off her work uniform and pulling out some more forgettable clothing. As she did so caught sight of herself in the mirror that rested against the wall. She was fit, probably fitter than most 24 year olds. Her entire body was muscled and toned, yet most of that was hidden under her fur; giving her the perpetual appearance of the cute little bunny that bugged her so much. At least she'd filled out a little bit more since high school. It had been hard then, lots of the popular girls had teased her about her lack of chest or any feminine form for that matter. She wasn't some curvaceous sex symbol that was for sure. But she had enough that she got regular looks from guys both at work and when she went out with friends. more than once she'd sensed desire in them, even if they'd never admit it; another perk of being an exorcist.

As she turned to gather up the clothes she was going to wear her eyes caught sight of the scars that ran along her hip and the side of her stomach. Officially the police had reported that in the pursuit of a suspect she'd been thrown through a window and that had resulted in the jagged scars. In reality the window she'd been thrown through didn't have anything to do with the scars, so much as the Volegun she'd been fighting. Not that it really mattered. He'd thrown her through a window, she'd stabbed him 35 times before setting him on fire; it was a fair trade. Then again she was still alive and he wasn't so. He might disagree 

Quickly she pulled on her hunter clothes, a pair of slightly worn but comfortable jeans, a black skin tight workout shirt over which went her stab vest and over that went an oversized hoodie before pulling on her back and rushing back out the door. Catching the train this time was a bit harder. She had to run at full speed before slipping through the narrow gap between the doors as they'd been about to shut. As she moved to take an empty seat her phone buzzed again. The dramatic sound of a mechanical loading sound telling her who it was from. Glancing at the message she found it to be further instructions. 

Meet at donni and ronni diner. Ask for the camping party.

That was normal. rarely would they ever meet at the place they were hunting in, to easy to tip off the target they were after. No they'd meet tmat some nearby public place, then casually walk near the area the target was in and then... 

“a hunting we will go.”

\---------

The diner easy enough to find. It's 50s inspired neon and green and blue sign made it glow in the slowly fading sunlight. Stepping through the door she paused for a moment, taking in the black and white tiled floor, the 50s and 60s memorabilia that hung from the ceiling and on displays around the tables and booths. As the door closed behind her a woman dressed as Marilyn Mongoose slowly glided up to her. “welcome to the Donni and Ronni diner. Can i get you a seat?”

She blinked at the woman before nodding. “i'm meeting some people here. For a camping trip?” 

The woman nodded and smiled. “ah of course, they're back here in the king's room. Follow me.”

She did as the woman asked. Having to jog slightly to keep up with her as she glided away on skates. Following the witness Judy found herself being led to a small private area that was hidden behind a shoulder high wall. As she rounded the wall she found a group of people already assembled. A few she recognized. A panther named Monchez she'd worked with once on a haunting. A muscular black and white cat named fisk that Judy knew had been in the military before joining the hunters. A middle aged rottweiler missing his left ear. And-

“dan. Good to see you.”

She watched as he turned to look at her, his striped tiger fur shifting and rippling as he smiled. “Judy! Now it's a part'a!”

She chuckled, Only he would think raiding a vampire nest was a party. She frowned slightly. “where's your brother?” 

He shrugged. “dealing with a Corpse Eater in Manehatten. He'll be so jealous he missed this.”

She nodded, moving to sit at the table. As she sat down dan gestured to a metal pot sitting on the table. “want some coffee?” 

She nodded. Coffee sounded great. Pouring herself a cup she heard monchez speak. “how many more we waiting on?”

Dan mentally counted for a moment before speaking. “Four I think. Jason, some new kid he's taken under his wing. Gregg who's bringing the toys and Ashly.”

At the last night Judy groaned. Her and the female sheep had never gotten along well. Judy thought she was a whiny little bitch. And Ashly…. Seemed to be jealous of Judy's inborn abilities. Next to her Judy felt fisk shift nervously. She could feel the calm nervousness coming from him. She knew he was good to do this. She'd seen him calmly slash his way through several Laskers even as they'd tried to claw his eyes out. And she knew that while he'd been in the military he'd seen hard combat. So it wasn't nerves of fear coming from him. No this was a kind of ambient nervousness, an anxiousness to get moving and finish the mission. She shifted, offering him a small smile which he returned; the feeling of his nerves lessening slightly. 

“so Judy, how'd you find this place?”

She shrugged and took a sip of her coffee. Mentally she blinked. The coffee wasn't bad. Better than the swill at the precinct anyways; then again that wasn't hard to do. Swallowing the mouthful of caffeinated liquid she spoke. “chased a robber into the warehouse. During the struggle a spirit showed up. Helped me subdue him and then pointed me into the building basement. Could feel the pain they caused from the moment i stepped down there.”

Dan raised an eyebrow. “a ghost told you where to find a vampire nest?”

She nodded. “yeah.”

Monchez chuckled. “sounds like a comedy show.” his voice became dramatic. “in a world where even the dead seek justice; GHOST COP AND THE FUZZ!”

she laughed at that, quickly setting her coffee down as she shook with laughter as monchez grinned. 

“what we all laughing at?”

The group turned towards the sound of the new voice. Just as Dan had said four people had joined their group. She nodded to jason, noting that a new scar had appeared along the black wolf's snout. Gregg towered over them all, his large muscular ursine body making him stand out; probably the only bear in this section of of the city. Ashly, her wool cut short but died a flaming shade of purple and pink that made Judy's head hurt. And…

She smiled pleasantly at the new guy. He couldn't have been older than 19 or 20. The young otter looked almost as nervous as she'd felt on her first day at the academy. And as he moved closer Judy found she could sense the nerves rolling off him like waves. As he sat down she spoke, nodding to him. “coffee helps the nerves. Have a cup.”

The otter shook his head but didn't speak. Dan frowned for a moment. “isn't he a little young Jason?” 

The large bear snorted. “whens that ever fuckin mattered? Sooner of lada he gotta kill something. Might as well be some leeches. We gonna do this or what?”

Dan nodded, draining his mug of coffee. “yeah. We got about 30 minutes till they start waking up. Just enough time to gear up, get in place and-” 

The otter spoke, his voice cracking with nervous. “waking up? We're gonna fight them awake?”

Dan chuckles before nodded. “yeah. Never fight vamps asleep. Great way to get killed.” The otter continues to look confused, and a moment later Dan explains. “when vamps sleep their bodies go into a kind of regenerative state. So nine times out of ten you cant cause enough damage to them before they wake up. Plus they're light sleepers. Better to hit them when they've just woken up. They'll be hungry. Not at full strength, so we Toss in a few flashbangs, some smoke bombs, then we kick in the door and start blasting until everything stops twitching.”

A general murmur of agreement went around the table. The otter continued to look nervous. From where he sat Jason spoke. “so who wants what? I got an armory in my trunk. Autos, semis, shotguns, even a few long rifles. Who wants what?”

Judy raised her hand. “shotgun.”

Jason looked at her. “think you can handle it?”

She rolled her eyes. “only if you can keep up fatass.”

That got her a chuckle. Soon enough the others hand made their ‘orders’. Fisk stood up, stretching his arms as he did so. “come on. Let's get this over with, i gotta pick up my sister from the airport at 10.”

The others nodded, draining their cups of coffee before leaving the private room. As they got up Judy dug into her pocket, tossing a few bills onto the table as a tip to their waitress. Turning to exit she found the otter was still sitting, his breaths coming long and hard. “nervous?”

He nodded. “y-yeah.”

She moved forward, putting her hands on his shoulder. “deep breaths. If you're gonna vomit, do it here. It's better than when you're fighting.”

He looked at her before shaking his head. “i… i'm not gonna throw up.”

She nodded. “good. Then get up and let's go.”

He remained seated for a moment before slowly getting to his feet. “o-ok.”

As they left the room she kept speaking. “want some advise?”

He looked to her and nodded. “y-yeah. Th-that would be… y-yeah.”

They left the diner, hurrying to the van where jason was passing out duffle bags. As they joined the group jason tossed her a bag. “One mr blasty for our resident bunbun. And for you,” he tossed a bag to the otter who staggered to catch it. “try not to shoot anyone still alive.”

The otter swallowed loudly, slinging the bag over his shoulder. Doing the same with her bag Judy turned to Dan who had started to speak. “the warehouse is a block up the street. Once we're insight of it, no one talks. Leave your phones, keys, anything that could make noise.I checked the city records, and the basement they're holed up in has two entrances. Its…” dan glanced at his watch. “8:50. We have 10 minutes to get in place, split up and come at the building from all four sides. And then funnel down into the two ways into the basement At 9 we go in and have our party.” Everyone nodded and dan chuckled. “then after that its back to my place for booze, weed, porn, and anything else we want. Lets go.”

The group began to move, splitting up into teams of two as they headed towards the warehouse. Falling back so she could walk with the otter Judy spoke. “what's your name?”

The otter looked at her. “tomas.”

She smiled. “i'm Judy. Nice to meet you.” He nodded, still looking nervous. She sighed. “nerves are good. They keep you alive. But don't let them panic you. Deep breaths that'll help.”

Again Tomas nodded. “h-how do you do it? I mean… we’re going to go… kill… people… how-”

She cut him off. “vampires aren't people, Not anymore. They don't care about anything they did before, just feeding and eating. Don't feel bad about killing them. They don't feel bad when they kill.”.

Tomas remained silent for a moment. “i… i'll try.”

Judy shrugged. “do whatever you got to do, when this is over. Get drunk. Get stoned. Find some hot piece of tail and mount her… or him like a lion. Go pray. Hell go fishing. Just don't focus on what we did. You'll drive yourself crazy.”

Tomas chuckled coldly. “yeah right. No girls ever been interested in me. Just a skinny punk otter. No way they'd want to sleep with me.”

She chuckled. “well, impress me and maybe we could help each other out When the shooting stops. Been a while since I had a good lay.”

His head turned sharply to look at her, his eyes widening. “wh-”

But she put her finger to her mouth, before pointing up the street to the warehouse which had come into view. In front of them the other groups had fallen silent too. As they neared the warehouse they began to break off. Each team going to their assigned part of the building. For Judy and the otter that meant going back the way she'd gone earlier that day. Moving into the warehouse Judy checked her watch, they had three minutes to get into position. Just outside the room she and the weasel had had their shootout in. Hurrying to their spot Judy unslung the dufflebag she’d been given. Pulling it open she grinned as the arsenal inside met her eyes. Jason was the best sometimes. A pump action 12 gauge shotgun, a bandoleer of shells and three flash grenades, just what they needed.

Readying herself she glanced sideways, watching as the otter did the same with his weapon. A standard glock pistol similar to one she had been given by the ZPD. glancing at her watch she jerked her head, one minute to go. Her heart was starting to race now. She knew what had to be done. the other teams would be in place and all had the same information. In the next 60 seconds they'd swarm the building on a hunt and destroy mission. Hopefully they all survived. She took a deep breath to calm herself. She was ready for this. The seconds ticked down, 50… 40… 30… 

She again looked at the otter, giving him another reassuring smile and a small wink. He was cute. And even if he was a lousy lay, the distraction would be nice. 20… 10…

Vaguely she wondered what other people were doing. Watching tv, playing video games, reading? Gods those things sounded so boring. 5… 1… 0.

Jerking her head Judy moved, planting the butt of the shotgun stock against her shoulder before moving into the warehouse; tomas trailed behind her. 


	2. Chapter 2

They moved through the warehouse like ghosts. The very second her watch told it was time, they moved. With the calm smooth movement they'd taught her at the academy Judy made her way through the open warehouse. Behind her she could feel the newest hunter Tomas following. Her footsteps were silent as they moved through the open space she had been in hours ago. On the far side of the room Dan and Monchez were moving too. Monchez was leading with Dan coming up second. She slowed slightly, allowing them to reach the stairs leading down to the basement and the nest. Quickly they descended the stairs, finding themselves in the dark hallway. Just as before Judy felt her fur prickle as she touched the cold floor. Whispers began to speak in the back of her mind, but she shut them out. Closing her mind off to the energies of the area so as not to be distracted. Following Dan and Monchez, Judy and Tomas fell in line. Silently the group moved down the hallway towards the heavy door to the basement. As they neared the door Dan motioned for them to stop and they did. They were on either side of the door now. Dan and Monchez on the left, Judy and Tomas on the right. She watched as Dan patted Monchez on the shoulder before mimming him opening the door before pointing to Judy and pretending to throw the grenades. She nodded as did Monchez. Taking another breath Judy grabbed one of the flashbangs from her belt and watched as Dan held up three fingers.  _ Here we go.  _ Slowly Dan lowered a finger, then another and then-

In a single swift movement Monchez grabbed the edge of the heavy sliding door before pulling it open a foot. From inside the room they could hear the sounds of movement. People speaking, laughter, an odd hissing sound that seemed to scratch at their skulls. But she ignored all of this, she had a job to do. Twisting the top of the grenade Judy moved, leaning over to throw the device into the room where it made a loud clattering sound. From inside the room the voices changed.

“what the?”

“whas that?”

“whats go-”

A second later the curious voices changed, Erupting into high pitched screams as a deafening blast ripped through the air. A moment later a wave of light flashed from inside the room, a sign the grenade had gone off. Instantly Monchez was moving again. Pulling the door the rest of the way open before rushing inside. She followed him stepping forward and to the right as she entered the room. For a split second she took in her surrounding. They were on a balcony with a smaller set of stairs leading down into the open area of the basement. On the far side of the room was another balcony like theirs, and just like theirs the other hunters had come through the door and were now ready with their weapons drawn and aimed. Below them in the open space of the basement she could see ‘people’ maybe… 30 of them, all of them writhing; some of them clutching their ears as-

“HUNTE-”

the sound of dan's yell cut off whatever vampire had been shouting. “BLAST THEM!”

She didn't think, her finger pulling back on the trigger of her gun which jerked and bucked against her shoulder. The room erupted in the deafening sounds of gunfire. Below them the vampires shrieked. She watched as several of them exploded. Their bodies bursting into flames and ash as the silver laced bullets they were using cut through the vampires. The thundering roar of gunfire seemed to assault her senses. The sound making her ears ring. The smell made her nose twitch at the scent of gunpowder. Her eyes eyes narrowed to compensate for the flashes from their muzzles. They'd probably killed at least 10 vampires so far. But now came the hard part. With the element of surprise gone the vampires were starting to react. Judy watched as several of them seemed to blur where they stood, their outlines becoming wavy and blurred. She knew what they were doing. Vampires had enhanced speed and agility, making them faster than a cheetah and more agile that even she was. And now they were using those abilities to dodge the bullets they were firing. 

Reading herself Judy watched as a vampire moved. Not even bothering with the stair but instead Rushing forward before leaping off the ground, sailing 15 feet through the air towards them.  _ Idiot. _

A second later Dan brought his rifle up, pulling the trigger, making the vampire die in a blast of ash and flames. Others were doing the same, seeming like a wave of bodies washing up towards them. She took aim, pulling the trigger and watching as another vampire exploded. The wave of vampires thinned but didn't vanish. Gripping her weapon tighter she watched as one of the vampires made it to the balcony they were on. Landing on the safety railing before letting out a bellowing hiss. For a moment she felt disgust and revolution well up in her stomach. She'd seen vampires before, so she knew what happened to them. But that never made seeing them up close any easier. The one before them had been some kind of canid, a fox or a dog of some kind. Its fur was clumped and matted by filth and gore. Its eyes shone like twin crimson coals of hatred and rage. But it was the vampire’s mouths that always disturbed her most. Vampires were blood suckers, but most species were not adapted to drink or suck blood; but the virus changed that. She watched as the canid's mouth seemed to split apart, as if it were some kind of blooming flower. Inside its mouth Judy could see rows of jagged yellow and black teeth along with a series of blackened slimy tongue writhing in anger. 

She did as she training told her, bringing her weapon up and yanking back on the trigger, sending the vampire to hell with a thunderous blast. Other vampires were landing now, some landing on the safety railing while others landed short. Having to pulling themselves up and over. And still others sailed over, landing on the walls and ceiling above them. Their tactics changed, becoming defensive. They stopped shooting wildly, instead sweeping the ares to find the vampire posing the most immediate threat. Out of the corner of her eye Judy saw one leap at Monchez, its mouth open and snarling. Monchez didn't even flinch, instead he lashed out the butt of his rifle slamming into the side of the vampire's head, knocking it to the ground before finishing it off. She was starting to run low on ammo. she'd fired four rounds when they'd first burst in and another three at charging vamps. That left her with only three more shots before she'd need to relo-

She spun to her right as movement caught her eye. A once ferret had lunged at her, a screaming his erupted from its open mouth. She brought her gun up, ready to end its existence. But she needn't have bothered. Next to her Tomas had moved as well. His pistol sending a round right between the former ferret's eyes. She repaid the favor a second later, blasting a basketball sized hole in a nearby cougar’s chest as it had prepared to jump at them. The covent was thinning now. Those vampires that were still alive weren't being so reckless. Instead of attacking one at a time they were coming in groups now. On the other side of the door a pair lunged for dan. With an almost bored expression on his face Dan killed one of them in mid air before bringing his arm up as the second one resched him. For a moment fear filled her stomach as she watched the vampire's mouth close around dan's arm. A second later the vampire screamed as Dan blew a hole through its stomach. As it burned away Judy found that under his sleeve Dan was wearing some kind of metal guard to protect his arm.

“EYES!”

she barely had time to hear the shout before she reacted, slamming her eyes shut a split second before another flashbang went off. Next to her Monchez howled, having not closed his eyes in time. Using the moment of distraction she darted out of the room and back into the hallway. Planting her back against the wall as she rapidly reloaded her weapon. This was going good. They'd probably killed half the vampires by now. Soon-

But her thoughts were cut off as a hissing sound came from above her. Jerking her head up Judy's eyes widened in shock as she found filth covered weasel dropping down onto her.  _ Fucking weasels! _

She had just enough time to bring her gun up before he was on her. She felt his hand grab the barrel of her shotgun. Throwing it away from him even as she pulled the trigger. The shot missed. Blasting a hole in the ceiling above them, instead of in the weasel's chest. A second later Judy found herself hurled through the air, the weasels enhanced strength lifting her off the ground and sending her crashing into the opposite wall. Pain exploded through her nose as her face connected with the stone and concrete wall. She ignored the pain. Instead rolling to her right as she heard the weasel his, no doubt lunging again at her again. Her guess turned out to be right, the weasel colliding with the wall where she'd een seconds ago. Pushing herself away from the wall Judy tried to throw herself towards the gun that had been knocked from her hands.

“OH NO YOU DON'T RABBIT!”

She felt a pair of ice cold hands connect with her shoulder as she moved. Again she was lifted off her feet, sent flying sideways by the force of the shove. She couldn't help but grunt in pain as she landed on the floor, her shoulder throbbing painfully as her weight slammed into it. No Time to think about that now. She rolled to the right just in time. The ground where she'd been cratered and shattered as the vampirized weasel brought his fists down on it, his strength more than enough to crack the concrete. 

Rolling to her feet her hand went to her belt, pulling her dagger from it and watching as it took the form of a kukri. The weasel's eyes narrowed at it. "I'm going to kill you rabbit and then i'm going to fuck the corpse!”

She smirked, he was trying to phase her, get inside her head. “promises promises leech.”

The weasel lashed out at her, using his claws as a tiger might; swiping at her with them. She ducked the swipe, claws slashing the air as she ducked low and attacked. Her blade cut deep into the weasel's stomach, black gore erupting from the wound. She moved away, putting distance between herself and the weasel as his hand went to his stomach while he roared in rage. The wound she'd given him was moderate at best. She'd seen vampires keep fighting even after having entire limbs ripped off. Sure enough it seemed to only infuriate the weasel more. He roared in rage, using his speed to rush her, his claws slashing and ripping at her. She used her agility to avoid the attacks. He could use speed or he could use strength, but not both at the same time; which gave her an advantage. She ducked, rolled, spun, twisted and weaved; managing to avoid his attacks, while managing to land one of two grazes against him. Again he roaded in rage. "I'LL KILL YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY RABBIT!”

his threat had given her the opening she needed. This time it was she who lunged at him, her mind already commanding her blade to change form. She could see the look of anticipation on the vampire's face. He must have thought she'd attacked him out of anger; he was wrong. She watched as he lept towards her, his mouth wide and his eyes hungry. At the last second she changed course, ddopping herself lower so he passed over her while her blade slashed up at him. For a split second his expression froze halfway between a smirk and a look of shock as her blade sliced through his neck, cleaving his head from his body. But another second later his expression vanished as his head and body burst into flames. She didn't even wait to see him ashes hit the ground. She charged back to her fallen weapon, grabbing it, pumping the next shell into the chamber and racing back into the basement room where-

“GAH!”

She barely had time to throw herself out of the way as Monchez hurtled backwards at her. As the large panther flew back down the hall Judy found herself staring at what she assumed to be a former lion. Its main was caked and drenched in grime and gore. Its mouth had split open revealing its horror show of teeth, its multiple tongue lashed through the air angrily. Unseen by the others an aura of darkness and evil swirled around the lion, making it look like he was surrounded by cloud of darkness. She knew that kind of aura. She'd seen it before. The lion was the vampire lord for this covent, the leader. The one who had taken these people and corrupt them into his servants. 

For a moment the lion stood framed in the doorway, but even as she began running towards it a striped body collided with it from behind. Judy watched as Dan tackled the lion, a roar of anger coming from the lion’s mouth. A moment later there was a flash of steel as Dan drew his dagger, plunging it once, twice three times into the vampirized lion’s neck. It was a desperate move, more to pull the lion’s attention to him than to cause him pain or injury. But Dan’s plan had worked, the lion roared, reaching back and spinning round to grab him by the head before throwing Dan off and sending him hurtling through the air and down into the open space of the basement. He'd turned her back to her, giving her an opening she could use, which she did. 

Charging forward Judy threw herself towards the lion, her feet colliding with the lion’s back in a powerful kick. She pushed with all the force she could manage. The lion caught off guard by the attack staggered, pushed off his feet before crashing down the metal stairs in front of him. For her part Judy shot backwards, bracing herself to land on the large ground.

“hoooof!”

She collided with a warm body, a pair of arms wrapping around her sides, pushing back against her to help her dissipate the momentum from her kick. Looking back she found Tomas had caught her managing to get behind her and keep her upright even when she'd slammed into him and knocked them Back several feet. Weakly Tomas grunted. “you ok?”

She nodded, a smile spreading across her face. “kid, you are SO getting laid tonight.”

He blinked at her i'm shock. “wh-”

The the rest of his words were cut off as the lion let out a bellowing roar that shook the entire basement. “YOU HUNTERS RUIN EVERYTHING!”

She pushed herself away from Tomas, a shout of, “later!” coming from her as she rushed back to the balcony and tool aim. 

Below them the lion and Dan were fighting. the lion was swiping and slashing at Dan who managed to duck, dodge and weave by the attacks. As they fought the lion continued to bellow. “YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! WE WERE TRYING TO GET OUT! TO ESCAPE THE CITY AND WHAT IS TO COME! BUT YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! NOW WE'RE ALL DEAD!”

Judy bit her lip. following the lion's movements with her weapon. He was too close to dan, if she fired now she'd risk hitting him too. Even if silver didn't do anything to hurt him, It was still a bullet and it would still kill him as easier as any other bullet. The others seemed to be having similar problems. She could see Fisk, Jason and Ashly on the other side of the room; also following the battle with their weapons, each of them looking for just that moment of opening. Below them the vampire lion roared again. “YOU'RE ALL DEAD! EVEN IF YOU KILL ME! IT'S COMING! AND WHEN ITS HERE IT'LL KILL EVERYTHING! MORTAL, MONSTER, EVERYTHING WILL DIE!”

She watched as Dan switched tactics. As the lion swiped at him, dan’s hand slipped to his belt. “and when it gets here i'll kill its ass too!”

In a swift motion Dan pulled out a stun baton, flicking the switch making an ark of electricity jump between the prongs with a loud crack. A second later he jammed the baton against the lion's incoming arm. The lion screamed as the electricity shot through its body. But it gave them all the moment they needed. As the lion twitched and jerked Dan threw himself away, shouting as he did so. “DO IT!”

Instantly the room filled with gunfire again. She watched as the lion jerked as multiple rounds from a dozen different directions ripped through its body. Her own shot caught him in the shoulder, making him howl and scream as a sizable chunk of his flesh was ripped to shreds by the blast. She kept firing. The lion wasn't like the other vampires. He wasn't going to go down from just a single bullet. He was the vampire lord. the leader of the covent and with every one of his minions they'd killed the power he'd imbued them with had returned making him stronger. They pelted and riddled him with bullets. None of them stopping until their weapons were empty and hot to the touch. Even then the lion had not died. Instead He dropped to his hands and knees, black blood poured from the multiple holes in him, dripping out onto the concrete floor. She watched as Dan moved in, his hand slipping to his belt to pull out his large hunting knife. As he neared the lion, the vampire looked up at him growling weakly. “you're all dead. You… will all die… when it gets here.”

Dan rolled his eyes. “like I said-” he brought his knife up, spinning it around before stabbing the blade forward at the vampire. A second later the lion dissolved into ash and flames as dan's blade vanished between the lion’s eyes. As the lion dissolved away Dan finished. “when it gets here i'll kill its ass too.” 

A moment later Fisk let out a loud, “horaa!”

The tension they'd all felt seemed to dissolve away, evaporating into nothingness now that the danger had passed and the vampires were dead. From where he stood Dan raised his hands dramatically. “are you not entertained?!”

A murmur of laughter tippled through the room. But the sound of low groan from behind made Judy stiffen. “Monchez!”

She spun around, running back down the hallway Monchez had been thrown down as she'd raced back to the battle. He'd managed to move, dragging himself out of the middle of the hallway and over to the wall where he now sat cradling his arm. For a moment she felt her heartbeat quicken, had he… been…

She gripped her gun tightly before speaking. “m-Monchez?” The injured panther looked up at her, his teeth gritted in a snarl. “are you…”

He growled and shook his head, his growl deepening as the movement made his arm shift. Through gritted teeth he spoke. “not bit… broke my arm…”

She lowered her weapon, moving in closer to her injured friend. She could smell the pain in his scent. Sure enough his srm had been broken, his shoulder seemed to be sitting much lower than it should have been and his bicep had a horribly large bulge in it that certainly wasn't muscle. “fuck.”

She unslung her bag, quickly digging through it to find the first aid kit she kept. Most of what she had was pretty useless, only good for minor injuries. But… maybe she could do...

Behind her she could hear the others coming down the hallway. “Monchez, what happened?”

She spoke over her shoulder. “his arm broke when he got thrown. We need to get him to a hospital.”

She heard Dan swear under his breath before, “Jason help me get him up. Judy take his gear, the extra weight won't help.”

She did as he'd told her, quickly removing Monchez's bulletproof vest, and weapon. She struggled slightly to lift the three sizes bigger m16 but managed to do it with a bit of help from Fisk. “thanks.”

The larger feline nodded, both of them stepping back as Jason and Dan moved in. 

“GRAH!”

the roar of pain made Judy wince as Monchez was pulled to his feet. The others stepped back, giving Monchez, Dan and Jason a wide berth as they helped Monchez down the hallway and up the stairs. Following behind them Judy fell back a bit till she was walking next to Tomas. “so, you survived your first hunt. Congrats.”

He grinned nervously at her. “y-y-yeah.”

She knew that grin. Adrenaline was still pounding through his veins, making him anxious and twitchy. It was cute really. She could remember being like that after her first hunt, gods shed felt like she wanted to run the obstacle course at the academy a hundred times that day. He'd probably be all hopped and twitching for the next few hours.  _ Perfect.  _

She shifted a little closer to him, leaning in to whisper into his ear. “Well, I'll admit you impressed me kid. Know what that means?”

The otter shook his head his eyes clearly showing her what he  **hoped** it meant. she smiled seductively at him. “come back to my place and find out.”

His eyes widened and his mouth hung open a bit. "I… uh… i… r-really?”

She smiled again, making a dramatic show of licking her lip. “oh yeah. BUT,” she spoke a bit firmer, pointing half threateningly at him. “don't think this makes us anything. This is just mindless stress relief. Not love. So you better not say I love you or cry at the end, or i'll kick your ass. And tomorrow you're gone unless I decide I want another go. Got it?”

The otter nodded quickly. “y-yeah.”

She smirked slightly. His energies had changed, lust and arousal had tinged them. Sometimes it was fun being an exorcist. She reached out, allowing his energied to fill her, images of his thoughts and desires flowing through her mind. She smiled again at him. “Oh kid, I am going to do UNSPEAKABLE things to you tonight.”

\-----------

Pain. Not just pain but blinding pain. Feelings of his bones being broken, his insides being torn out, his soul being ripped to shreds over and over and over and over and over. They filled his mind, his body, his entire existence was nothing but that pain. And yet through the pain, through the blinding all consuming ever present pain that made him writhe and scream in agony; purpose and a plan. He clawed his way forward, every millimeter of movement felt like he was being flayed alive and covered in salt. He'd long since stopped hearing the sound of his own voice, of the perpetual unending screams that had been the first sound he'd made seconds after he was born. With each movement he was being torn apart. Demons ripped and clawed and tore at his skin, his muscles, his insides as he crawled over them, through them. Still he moved. Dragging himself along the sea of fire and blood and the broken bones of those who had come before him, inches, feet, yards, miles; pain and suffering his only companions in the landscape of fire and screams and broken hope.

And then, on the edges of hell, the very limits of this domain of pain and suffering and torment… the abyss. Without thinking he flung himself into it, away from the world of pain and fire and into the endless nothingness. He was falling now, winds like razors slashed at him, cutting him, ripping him apart as he fell upwards further and further and further. Below him he could hear the sound of roaring, hell’s rage as its most condemned and tormented escaped its grasp. demons shrieked and raged, their claws stretching up as if to grab him, but he was miles above them now. Never again would they touch him. A new sound came from him then, a sound he hadn't made in… his entire life; laughter. 

A second later he spasmed. His body twisting and writhing as everything came to a sudden stop. His lungs filled, not with ash and fire and smoke as they had before but with air. Dank musky stagnant air filled his lungs, making him cough and gasp. He wasn't falling anymore, he was… where was he? His hands reached out, encountering something hard and… wooden? His eyes opened and for the first time they were not being ripped or clawed out of his skull. He was in darkness. He struck out with his hands and legs, feeling the limits of where he was. A box… he was in a box… a pine box… a buried pine box. He lashed out, his claws extending to rip and slash at the wood surrounding him. His insides still burned, aching and burning as if he'd just been forced to swallow molten metal, even though that torture had ended centuries ago. Suddenly above him the wood cracked. For a split second he watched as dirt and mud rushed down at him, burying him, crushing him; trying to choke the life out of him. 

He kept clawing, frantically dragging himself upwards. No, no he'd come to far for this to stop him. He felt his lungs fill with muck but he kept clawing and crawling, moving up and up through the dirt and mud and mortal muck until-

“GAAAAAAH!”

More air, not dank and stagnant like before but instead fresh and cold. He gasped and coughed allowing himself a moment to breath after all he had done. He was in a field of some kind, all around him the grasses had burned away. No doubt a result of the gate that had opened when he'd escaped the inferno below. Above him stars shown down on him. Each of them hung suspended in the sky, like tiny diamonds. Before him he could see the city, Zootopia.

Again he laughed. His plan had worked. He was free. His chains had been thrown off. No longer was he trapped in the raging infernal pit. Now… now he was free. Free to enact the plan he'd spent so long making. Free to take his vengeance on everyone who had tormented him and lied to him and cheated him. free to make them suffer the unending unthinkable pain that he'd been subject to since the very moment of his birth. Free to watch them beg and plead for their lives. 

He pulled himself up and out of the hole he'd spawned in. Shaking the dirt and dust off his jet black clothes before reaching up to straighten his blood crimson tie. He was going to find them, those that had wronged him. He was going to find them, and break them, make them beg and plead and pray for mercy that would never come. Then he would find those who stole from him. Who had taken the one thing in his entire existence that was truly his. They would suffer a worse fate. And then… then… then he'd have some real fun. 


	3. Chapter 3

“Mmmm!”

Her hum of ecstacy filled the room, actually making the walls vibrate slightly as it bounced back at her. Every nerve in her body was trembling, pleasure raced up and down along her spine, her lungs almost ached from how hard it was for her to breath and-

“Aaaaaaaah!”

Another orgasm slammed into her, her ninth one of the night making her eyes roll back as her hips bucked and hump against the face currently pressed against her sex. She could feel him, even through blinding numbing burning pleasure that was drowning her. She could feel him him, His tongue lapped and thrust and licked inside her, always seeming to know exactly when she wanted it to be next. In a flash it took deep long licks from inside her. Making her gasp as her inner walls tried to clamp down on it. Another second and it swirled and danced along her clit, making her head pound as her hips bucked harder and the pleasure she was feeling became more violent. Next came her lips, he expertly ran his tongue along the entrance to her folds, making her bite her lip and shudder in want. And then suddenly back inside her, his tongue rushing in and filling her again making her gasp and jerk from the suddenly rush of new pleasure. “g-g-g-go-GOD!”

a second later she yelped, a feeling of sharp stinging pain lancing through the pleasure but instantly absorbed by it as he struck her rump firmly. From behind her she heard him growl threateningly, his tongue still inside her as he spoke. “Not even close.”

He attacked her with a renewed vigor, his tongue moving faster, pressing harder and seeming to grow hotter all at the same time. She felt it growing inside her. The fireball of pleasure that had been growing from the moment he'd grabbed her and thrown her down. It grew hotter and hotter making her gasp and shake as it grew. She bit down on the pillow she had crushed against her chest. Her hips unconsciously lifting higher, pressing and humping back against him as he drew her closer and closer and cl-

“GAAAAAAAH!”

Pain shot through her body, somehow making the pleasure she was feeling even strong. He'd reached up and grabbed her ears roughly using them to pull her head back and away from the pillow she'd been biting. His tongue surged deeper and deeper, feeling as if it had reached the very center of her body. Her breathing shook and shuddered as she felt like she was being crushed under the weight of the building pleasure. She growled, a deep wanton feral growl as her hips thrust back against his face. Gods so was so soooo close to-

“NAAAAAAAA!”

She threw her head back, a desperate pleading begging whine erupting from her as his tongue vanished from insid-

“GAH!”

she yelped as she felt his hand connect firmly with her womanhood. sending a jolt of decadent pain that made her toes curl and her eyes water as it changed to pleasure. Again he pulled her ears, pulling her under she was bent almost completely backwards. “BEG.”

Gods his voice, it sent shudders through her. So deep and commanding almost threatening; challenging her to resist. It reached into her, half scaring the crap out of her as she struggled instinctively against his grip. “p-p-please-GAH!” 

again he pulled her ears. “LOUDER RABBIT. OR ELSE…” to prove his point he spanked her entrance again. Making her shudder as the pain lashed through her. 

“P-PLEASE!” again he spanked her. Her whole body jolting from the punishment. 

“please WHAT?”

she was beyond herself. He could have made her do anything in that moment. She threw her head back, her voice dripping with desperation and need. “PLEADE, FUCK ME!! I NEED IT!” gods she sounded like a desperate horny bunny in heat. But she didn't care. She was desperate, beyond desperate. she'd never needed anything this bad in her life. Her body shook with want and she could practically feel the juices dripping from her as-

Again he pulled her ears, this time to the side forcing her to turn and look at him. He was a fox, orange fur, cream and brown fur. His teeth were bared, sending a jolt through her as she took in the row of razor sharp teeth; twisted into a sneering cocky smi-

Her blood ran cold and her heart stopped as she found his eyes. For some reason she'd thought they were green. A deep almost emerald shade of green. But they weren't, they black; soulless and empty and jet black. The eyes of a demon. Before she could react he surged forward his hand shoving her face forward, pinning it to the wall as he moved into position. Despite the panic growing in her gut she felt herself shudder in anticipation as his organ brushed against her entrance. She struggled weakly against his grip her eyes opening and… again she froze, her eyes going to the small mirror she'd hung on the wall and her reflection in it. Just like the foxes her eyes were jet black and soulless; the eyes of a demon.

“N-NO!”

With a blast of psychic energy she lashed out at the demon. In the past such attacks had made demons shriek and scream in pain, but now-

The world warped around her, the air rippling like water. suddenly she wasn't in her bedroom anymore, she was… oh gods… she was standing in the streets… surrounded by what looked to be a warzone. Cars had been flipped over and smashed. The concrete road had shattered like glass. The windows of the nearby buildings had exploded. Bodies lay around her. With a jolt she found she recognized some of them. Fisk with a hole through his chest. Dan missing his head. Jason with his intestines spilling out of his stomach. And a hundred others she didn't know, each of them ripped and torn to shreds as if my…

Something drew her attention to her hands, the feeling of warm slickness against her fur making her stomach lurch. Her hands were coated in blood. Not just coated but bathed in it. The warm crimson liquid was so thick it actually squelched as she moved her fingers. “you ok?”

She blinked turning towards the sound of the voice. It was the fox again, wearing a black suit a blood red tie, both of which looked immaculate despite the warzone around them. She felt her body move without her say so. “yeah… just… my friends…”

She felt her stomach lurch as she looked at her fallen friends again. The fox shrugged. "It had to be done. Come on.” 

She nodded and-

The world warped and twisted again. the streets vanished. She was standing atop a building now. Above her the skies had turned blood red, the sun had turned black and seemed to radiate darkness instead light. Below them she could see the city; torn, twisted and mangled. Pillars of fire were arching into the sky. Building had shattered or been crushed. Sounds of screaming and fighting sounded like the wails of the damned. She could see things moving through the streets; demons, monsters horrors she'd never known were possible before. Horrible twisted amalgamations of flesh and muscles and evil the lumbered and prowled along the burned out destroyed streets . They were everywhere. Behind her a familiar voice spoke. “Judy.” She turned. The fox was there, an odd expression on his face as he looked at her. “thank you. Thank you for all you’ve done.”

His words brought with them a realization. A sweeping sickening realization that chilled her to her core as if someone had dumped an entire ocean's worth of ice into her gut. She had helped this happen. She had helped HIM make this happen. She-

She spun around as world shook. In the distance a wave had formed and was rapidly nearing where they stood. She heard the fox speak again as the wall of blood and pain and death and evil rushed towards them. "I lo-”

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”

She woke up screaming, sitting bolt upright as the scream exploded from her lungs. She could feel it, it was around her, pressing in on her, trying to crush her; that wave. She flailed, the feeling of the wave making her arms and legs tremble as it washed over her, lifting her up and-

“Gah!”

She fell from the bed, hitting the floor in a naked shaking heap of fur and limbs. Her body was moving out of instinct, trying to crawl away from whatever was attacking it.

“Judy?! What's wrong?”

The voice snapped her out of her panic, making her blink as it cut through her bodies fear like a knife. She blinkee, shaking her head, willing the tears that were welling up in her eyes to go away. She could feel him. Tomas, the otter's aura was tinged with fear as he looked down at her from the bed. “hey. What's wrong? Talk to me. Did I do something wrong? ”

She forced herself to breath, to think. That hadn't been a normal dream. As an exorcist her dreams were usually more intense than others. But this… this had been something else completely. Normal dreams didn't affect her like this. They didn't make her wake up screaming, or make her fall out of bed or make her tremble and shake. Only one thing did that. Psychic backlash, which meant…

She sat up, still forcing herself to breath as she grabbed her phone from the nightstand above her. She ignore Tomas's repeated question of “what's wrong?”

Her fingers danced over the keys of her phone, rapidly typing out a message to-

She was halfway through the message when her phone dinged; someone had included her in a text group. 

What the fuck was that? Did anyone else feel that?!

The message was from Nisha, a mountain lion and a well known psychic amongst the hunters. She'd barely managed another word when another ding hit her phone. 

Anyone else feel that? That was insane!

Soon her phone was dinging constantly as a dozen more messages came through, her eyes widening as more people began chiming in. It wasn't just her, dozens of others had felt… whatever that had been. And like her they were scared. Psychic backlash wasn't anything new. Usually the result of when someone became a ghost or when certain kinds of monsters were created… but… for one of this size… to have affected so many people… what could have caused it?

She blink as her phone let out a different sound, a low him that drew her attention back to the screen. Jasper had responded now, of course being an empath he'd be included in the chain. Unlike the other messages his was in all caps. With a faint smile she could almost see him growling in annoyance as he wrote. 

STOP IT! EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP! ITS 4:27AM! ANYONE WHO WANTS TO DISCUSS WHAT HAPPENED COME TO RAVENHOLM TOMORROW. UNTIL THEN, SHUT UP AND GO TO BED!

She felt her smile grow at that. She could just imagine Jasper throwing his phone across the room after having sent the text. He never did like being woken up. She'd learned that the hard way once or twice. Taking a deep breath she turned her phone to silence, looking up at Tomas who was looking down at her concerned. After a moment he spoke. "Is… everything… ok?”

She sighed softly before nodding. “yeah.... You good to go another round?” 

he blinked at her, his eyes widening. “w-what?”

She smirked up at him. "I said…” she stood up grabbing his head and pushing it against her hips. “get to work.”

For a moment nothing happened but then; a wash of pleasure helped to distract her from the memories of the dream.

\----------

Walking through the precinct during roll call the following day Judy could not help but notice just how many of her fellow officers looked exhausted. Several of them were drinking from larger than normal cups of coffee. Others had their heads down on the desks until the chief walked in and began handing out their assignments for the day. As usual she was put on foot patrol. Afterwards a everyone filed out of the room she questions a few of them subtly. Most of them told the same story, bad dreams that they couldn't remember. Others saying they'd felt restless or unexplained feelings of dread. A couple had mentioned a feeling of lingering tension or unease. As if something was about to happen that they couldn't put their fingers on. That made her concerned. She'd worked here long enough to know which of her fellow officers was ‘sensitive’ and which ones weren't. None of them were like her. But a few of them were sensitive, able to get feelings and intuitions influenced by psychic phenomena. Yet that didn't seem play a part in who was or wasn't affected. 

She saw cops she knew to be sensitive both disheveled and seemingly unaffected. No what interested her were the others, officers who she'd never seen show any signs of sensitivity but seemed to have been affected by whatever had happened last night. She tried to be subtle, casually asking questions to others as they all got ready to go about their duties for the day. And as she set out to her route she pondered what answers she had been given. It had definitely been some kind of psychic backlash. So it made sense that she and other sensitive individuals would have felt it. But if it had been a normal backlash then why had some been affected while others hadn't. And why were people who weren't sensitive being affected? It didn't make sense, at least not to her. Mentally she prayed that others would show up at the Ravenholm like Jasper had told them too. She may have been the only exorcist in the city, but she was by no means an expert. Hopefully one of the more advanced psychics knew what was going on, or at least had some ideas. Her patrol was routine, actually it was pretty boring. Not that that was a bad thing. A boring patrol meant that the city was safe and nothing and was happening. That was always good. 

In a flash the morning seem to vanish, her stomach growling loudly making her pause in her tracks. Her shift afforded her an hour long lunch. And she wasn't far from the avian district and Ravenholm. It would be easy for her to stop by, get info on what had happened and then grab a quick bite to eat on the way back. As if to agree with her thought process her stomach growled again. Radioing in her break grom patrol Judy hurried, bounding up the steps to the large dividing wall of the city sector and into the joining tunnel. She rarely visited this part of town. The avian district had its own division of the ZPD so rarely were they ever called to disputes or crimes here. But she had visited Ravenholm several times, so she knew a bit of what to expect. Stepping out of the joining tunnel the first thing that hit her was the sound. Unlike the mamailain sectors of zootopia the avain section was much quieter, not silent but quieter. No cars or trains making a full roar of sound. Instead, the soft clicking and clacking of talons on concrete and the rustle of feathers made a kind of low thrum. 

Several birds stared at her as she hurried onto the path she knew led to Jasper's home. Above her giant towering trees grew, homes and business having been built into the interconnecting limbs and branches. The entire second had an oddly crisp scent to it. The large trees producing much more fresh oxygen than their smaller cousins in the other districts. The ‘streets’ were not as packed in this part of the city, she could move easily, a quick half jog half run as she made her way through the district. As she did so she ignored the still surprised looks she got. 

Ravenholm was a bit of an oddity here. Unlike the other homes that sat or hung from the tree limbs high above, it was built on the ground. Then again it was a massive estate so it may have simply been to big to have built into the trees. Unlike most of the other homes which small or moderate sized structures Jaspers home was huge, a mansion with wooden walls and glass lined ceilings with easily 20 or 30 rooms depending on what one considered a room. It was built in an older style, more of a mammalian Victorian style than any modern avian building in the district. She'd asked him about it once. Why he, a bobcat would choose to live in a part of the city mostly inhabited by birds in a home that sat on the ground and clearly seemed out of place. He'd explained that the house had been built in a section of the city that was uniquely attuned to the natural energies of the city. That it sat right on the intersection of several ley lines as well as in the center of several confluence of magical, spiritual and psychic wellpools. And to top it all off, it had been built over an entrance to the old underground maintenance tunnels that spanned the entire city, a useful escape or smuggling route to have access too. Plus it was large enough house dozens if not a hundred or so hunters if there was some kind of an emergency.

Moving up the steps of the mansion Judy pressed the ‘doorbell’ and waited to be let in. She didn't have the wait long for the door to swing open, the sight of the aging bobcat coming into view. “Judy. It's good to see you.” 

It was hard to describe Jasper. Not because he was complex, the aged bobcat was actually very simple. No the difficulty came because of the odd feelings she got when she was around him. As an empath Jasper had the natural ability to ‘tweak’ the energies he let off. Meaning he could make people feel certain things if he wanted them too. His voice was calm, smooth, and a bit deep. Rather like an old uncle or a friendly mentor. His presence was oddly reassuring, as if the years he'd spent hunting and learning and training others meant he could stop just about anything. The faint smell of tobacco and sage reminding her of all those months she'd spent studying his lessons. She mirrored his movements, stepping forward to give him a tight hug. “good to see you too Jasper.”

Releasing her friend Judy watched as Jasper gestured inside. “come in. I assume you're here to talk about whatever the hell happened last night?”

She nodded, stepping into the house before shutting the door behind her. “y-yeah. I am.”

Jasper nodded, motioning for her to follow him down a long corridor leading into the mansion. She fell in line next to him, allowing him to lead her. “you and half the others in the city. We've had people coming and going for hours now. Each of them has their own answers and theories, but so far little is making sense. Whatever that… disturbance was, it was unlike any other in recent history.”

She nodded in agreement. “what is everyone else saying? Did anyone manage to get a reading on its source?”

Jasper nodded slowly. “partially. Some of Minerva’s followers,” at the mention of the serpent sorceress Judy felt her mood darken. She'd met Minerva Dunwitty a few times, none of those times had she been happy to do so. The serpentine magic user made her feel wrong. Like she was seconds away from being tricked or lied to or caught in some trap. She'd told Jasper of her concerns of course. But he'd assured her that Minerva could be trusted. Remaining silent Judy watched as Jasper moved forward, stepping through a large doorway and into a large library. “come Judy. Sit. Would you like anything to drink? I have some brandy abouts here somewhere. Or perhaps a beer? I recall you enjoy them occasionally.”

She shook her head at the offer. “can't. I'mon lunch.”

Jasper rolled his eyes. “very well. Tea then?” She nodded, taking a seat in a soft cushiony armchair watching as Jasper moved to prepare twin cups of steaming hot tea; one of which he handed to her. She took the tea, bringing it to her nose. A second later the warm smell of lemon and ginseng filled her lungs. “so, tell me Judy. What did you see last night?”

She took a deep breath. Taking a sip of tea a moment later to buy herself a little time. In truth… she didn't know how much to admit to. She knew Jasper wouldn't judge her, he was objective like that; only caring about things that grew their knowledge of what was happening. But…

"I won't judge you Judy. I promise.”

She frowned at him, sighing softly. “reading my aura Jasper?”

He shrugged softly, taking a sip of his tea. “yes. Although I hope you understand that it is not on purpose. Unlike your abilities, mine cannot be turned off so easily. And… the conflict inside you is… sizable. Listen,” he leaned in to look at her. "I promise you. Nothing you say will be shared beyond the context of helping us to figure out what's happening.”

She remained silent for a moment, looking at her mentor. After a few moments she sighed, taking another sip of tea before speaking. "I had… a dream… maybe more… I don't know.”

Jasper raised an eyebrow. “more? A vision?”

She shrugged. “Maybe? It… it wasn't like any vision I've had before. In the past they've always been in the here and now. Something that's happening in another place. But this… I think… this might have been… the future…”

There was no mistaking the look of shock that flickered across his face. “the future?” She nodded, watching as he processed that. “foresight is a rare gift amongst exorcists but… and correct me if I'mwrong, you've never displayed this ability before.”

She nodded again. “you'd be right. Although, to be fair I never displayed signs of being an exorcist… before I suddenly did.”

Jasper chuckled at that, nodding. “fair enough. So what did you see in this vision?”

She fell silent then, taking a long time to sip a mouthful of tea. The hot flavors filled her mouth; honey, ginseng, a vague flavor of raspberries all of them prickling and dancing along her tongue for several seconds. She didn't normally drink tea. She'd tried it a few times before, but always found them bitter or overly bland. But that night, when she'd seen her first monster and been dragged head first into this world… Jasper's tea had helped. And in the times she’d struggled; the night after her first hunt, the night before she learned if she would graduate the academy or not, his tea had again helped. Swallowing the mouthful she responded. "I was… having sex… with a fox.”

Next to her Jasper cocked his head slightly. “oh?” his voice was soft, no hint of judgment or disapproval in it. Even still she squirmed a bit at it. Vaguely she wondered… if he knew about some of the dreams shed had about him… would he use the same tone?

She nodded, doing her best to ignore the faint prickles of embarrassment that were making her ears tingle.. "I… it was… rough and… at one point… he grabbed me and made me look at him… and… his eyes… were black… like a demon's.”

That caught Jasper's attention. “a demon? Are you sure?”

She nodded, the memory of the fox's dark soulless bottomless eyes fresh in her mind. “yes, I'msure.”

She watched as next to her Jasper took a deep breath. “you say… the sex was… rough… Judy… I must ask… and believe me I wish I didn't… but… do you believe it was… consensual?”

She sighed, taking another sip of tea. "I… I don't know. It…” she squirmed a bit, embarrassed by the question. "It was rough; he was very controlling and aggressive. But… I wasn't fighting back.”

Jasper nodded. “but... It's possible this demon bewitched or entranced you. You may not having willingly given yourself to him?”

She bit her lip. Determinedly keeping her gaze on her reflection in the tea. “my eyes were black too.”

Silence met her words, silence that stretched on for several seconds before-

“well… that rules out a vision of the future then.” She looked at him confused. After a sip of his tea Jasper elaborated. “as an exorcist you have certain… resistances and immunities the rest of us do not. As I taught you, most mind control techniques or psychic attacks wont work on you, not unless they are particularly powerful. But your protections go deeper than that. As an exorcist your soul… it has a kind of… auto cleaning function if you will. Unlike the rest of us. Your soul doesn't not accumulate corruption. Therefore there is very little chance of you becoming a demon. Not unless you suddenly summon one whore yourself to him and then hand your soul over. also, one cannot simply force its way inside you and wear you like a skinsuit as they can with others. Therefore,” Jasper took another sip of tea. "If you approach what you saw logically, it is nearly impossible to be the future.” His words did make her feel a little better, but only a little. Sensing her uncertainty Jasper continued. “but there was more to your dream than this, I take it?”

She nodded. "I.. cried out… hit it with a mental attack and then….there was…. I saw… hunters… dead… their bodies laying in the streets as monsters roamed the city. People screaming… dying… being eaten and slaughtered… and… my hands… covered in blood… their blood… I think… and that fox… thanking me… for helping make it happen.”

Jasper remained silent for several moments. She felt her inside squirm as that silence stretched on. What was he thinking? Was he worried about what she'd seen? was he suspicious of her now? Wa-

“Judy,” she felt his hand touch her shoulder, her head turning to look at him. “listen closely, and know that what I say is true. Ok?” she nodded and he continued. “you've never faced a real demon before. Demonspawn, yes. Even a hellspawn. But never a true demon. So believe me when I say, demons are amongst the worst of the worst. They Are soulless uncaring monsters. They delight in pain and torture and suffering of innocent and the guilty alike and there is no line they will not cross. They will twist and infect every happy memory, every good feeling, and use them as a weapon. When something like that, encounters someone like us. Someone who is… uniquely sensitive, it's a delight to them. It's a way to cause even more pain than they could on just a normal person. Any demon can rape and murder, that some of their favorite pastimes. But to people like you and me they can do much worse. They can make us watch it, every idea, every sick detail while they twist us until we feel like we want it to happen. But that’s all it is, them trying to tempt us. I believe this is what you saw. A sliver of what it hoped to do to some poor soul. But when you resisted, you forced your mind deeper. I don't believe what you saw was foresight, there are to many inconsistencies. BUT I do think you've caught a glimpse into this demon's plans. For that I am grateful.”

She smiled weakly, nodding slowly. "I…”

He could still sense her uncertainty. As he leaned back in his chair he smiled. "I promise you Judy, there is an army of people standing between this monster and whatever its goal is. it won't succeed. Even if I have to send it back to hell myself, he won't succeed.”

That helped a bit more. She'd been about to speak again when the radio on her shoulder blipped and crackled to life. “attention all available units! Attention all available units! A riot has broken out at The Vermin housing projects on 44th and Lacard street. All available units please respond!”

Her eyes widened, the sound of panic was clear in the dispatcher's voice. Next to her Jasper chuckled. “Duty calls it seems. Go. make the world a better place. And… be safe.” She bit her lip, looking to the aging bobcat. She felt bad for rushing off like this. It had been months since they'd seen each other, and she’d hope they could maybe catch us. But now-

He smiled at her. "I'mnot so old that i'll kick off just yet Judy. Go. we can chat another time.”

She nodded, draining the last of her tea before setting the cup down. “Keep me informed about what’s happening. Will you?”

He nodded and smiled. “Of course.”

\--------------

She could hear the sounds of the riot before she arrived. Sprinting down the sidewalk towards the house projects Judy could hear the sounds the snarling, screaming, roaring and fighting. Civilians had been pulled back and were now being forced further back down the street by several officers. Dozens of police cruisers, and even two SWAT vans had pulled up in front of the Housing projects. Rounding one of the cruisers Judy paused for a moment, taking in the scene before her. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. The courtyard area in front of the building was a sea of bodies. Even as she stood there she watched a wolf, the tattered and torn remains of his clothes barely hanging onto his body; lunged at one of the responding police officers like a wild animal. The wolf’s body collided with the equine officer's chest, knocking them both backwards and to the ground in a pile of fur, growling and bodies. If the officer hadn't been wearing a stab vest like she was, Judy would have been worried. As it was her attention was pulled to another officer, the Ram officer had been dragged to the ground and was currently being pummeled by a dozen different mammals. Her training kicked in, making her reach for the stunbatton on her belt as she rushing forward. She hit the nearest mammal first, a meerkat who growled and yelled as the crackling batton connected with the side of his ribs. Instantly the blast of electricity made him stagger, an opening she used to grab him by the back of his shirt and drag him away from the Ram. even as the meerkat continued to twitch she moved, first pinning him beneath her and then securing his hands and arms behind his back with a zip tie from her belt. 

It happened just as she got off him, in a flash he spun around. His arms were still secured behind his back, the tie being strong enough to keep a lion restrained; but his mouth was still free. He snapped at her, his teeth bared and his eyes slitted and furious as he tried to bite up at her. And for a split second she saw something, it was like smoke covering his face, not formless but with shape. Even as she saw it the smoke took on a clearer form; two hollow circles for eyes and a pair of triangular ears coming into her view. Her eyes widened. The meerkat was being overshadowed. Someone or something was controlling it’s mind, bringing out it’s savage side. She took a step backwards, her eyes going to the still warring crowds of mammals and officers. She allowed herself to focus for a moment, letting her mind stretch out like Jasper had taught her. If the meerkat was being overshadowed, then-

More billowing black faces appeared in her vision, the same sets of hollow eyes and triangular ears met her gaze. Almost every civilian had one of them, hovering over the civilian’s face; making them look like they were wearing some kind of mask. But there were more, floating through the crowd, gathering around the responding officers, buzzing around their heads. Now that she was focusing she could hear them whispering, “let go.” “give in.” “rip them.” “tear them.” “feel their blood.” “feel their flesh.” “rip them.” “tear them.” “kill them.”

Even as she looked around she watched as another officer, a tiger let out a bellowing roar of anger. She watched as one of the floating faces moved, fixing itself over the officer’s face. A second later the officer dived into the sea of bodies, all sense of control seemingly gone. This was bad. Whatever was causing the overshadowing was powerful, it would have to be to affect so many mammals at once. She could dispel the overshadowed mammals, true. But doing so would leave her exhausted and weak. No, she needed to find it. If she could distract it, it might free up some of the affected people, might give the police a chance to subdue the mob; even if she couldn't beat whatever it was that was causing this. Turning her attention to the surrounding buildings she frantically searched fo-

The sound of an explosion made her jerk. Several floors up one of the buildings a window burst outwards. A second later her eyes widened as a body plummeted through the air, the rat screaming in panic before suddenly falling silent as it hit the ground. No sooner had the window exploded then she felt it; the whispering of the faces growing louder. There, the source was there!

She raced towards the entrance to the building, ducking through the broken glass doors before charging inside. The lobby of the building had been torn apart. Benches and chairs were smashed, pictures and painting and been ripped from the walls. Dozens of claw marks and gashes mired the floors and walls. Amongst the marks she could see several splatters of fresh crimson. She tried not to think about those. She raced through the building, quickly finding the stairway and bounding up them three at a time. It was times like these she was grateful for being a rabbit. Her physiology made it easy for her to run up flights of stairs. As she ran she changed weapons, her stunbatton going back to her belt as she instead retrieved her gun. Finding the floor she was looking for wasn't hard. As she came to the landing of the stairwell her eyes widened again as she found the metal door leading into the building had been blasted off its hinges and now lay half embedded on it’s side in the floor. 

As she moved into the hallway she clicked her safety off.  _ Remember your training Judy. Don't think. Just react an- _

"I'M GETTING TIRED OF THIS RAT!” The sound of the bellowing voice made her pause, here ears taking a moment to find the direction it was coming from. Left. she moved in that direction, hunkering low and against the wall as she ran. "I ENJOY A GOOD GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE AS MUCH AS THE NEXT PERSON. BUT YOU’RE JUST DELAYING THE INEVITABLE.” she picked up the pace, rushing down the hallway as fast as she could. The voice was getting loude-

As she turned a corner in the hallway she came across a body, a rat; it was laying face down on the floor; a large pool of crimson under it telling her the rat was dead. 

_ Seems to be a theme here. _

She ignored the body. Nothing she could do to help it now; she had to find the source and put an end to this. Before more people ended up like that. There were more bodies now. Some of them lay face down on the floor like the first. Others were slumped against the walls; their throats torn out or their insides ripped open. A few of them were riddled with bullet holes and at least one of them had had its head completely torn clean off it’s shoulders. She pushed them out of her mind. If she couldn't help them, they weren't important. That’s what her training and ta-

**_STOP!_ **

The ghostly warning came at just the right moment. For a split second she paused, her brain half wondering if she’d imagined the voice. In that split second the wall a short ways in front of her exploded; wood, plaster, wallpaper and debris flew through the air, along with a body. She ducked for cover, darting sideways and behind a planter. Down the hallway she watched as the body flew through the air, hit the wall on the other side of the hallway and slumped against it. For a moment she wondered if it might be dead, but then it slowly began to stir, staggering to its feet before...

“FUCK OFF FREAK!”

The sound of several gunshots split through the air, as the rat aimed it’s gun and fired at the unseen voice. For a split second a look of triumph spread across the rat’s face, no doubt thinking it had won. But that smile vanished a heartbeat later as another form emerged from the hole in the wall. 

_ IT’S HIM! _

Judy’s eyes widened as she found herself staring at the fox from her dreams. The same blood red fur, the same black suit and red tie; it looked exactly like him. In a flash the fox was on the rat, grabbing him by the throat before lifting him off the ground. The rat flailled wildly, his gun going off twice more in his panic. The first shot went wild, the second one struck the fox in the shoulder seeming to pass cleanly through the fox's suit and flesh as if it wasn't even there. The fox didn't even flinch. When he spoke his voice was completely calm. “Now then rat, enough games. WHERE. IS. IT?” The rat continued to struggle desperately slamming the side of the his gun into the fox’s face. Again the fox barely flinched. “SO BE IT.” with a simple flick of the wrist the fox sent the rat upwards; hurtling through the air and with a deafening crash up through the ceiling and into the floor above them. 

Now was her chance, while the fox was alone and the rat wasn't in the way. She burst out from behind the planter she’d been using for cover, leveling her gun at the fox and shouting. “ZPD FREEZE!” 

The fox turned, perhaps startled by her sudden appearance. For a few seconds the hallway was dead silent. Was it just her imagination? Or was there a look of recognition in the fox's face before, “DON'T INTERFERE MORTAL!”

It slammed into her a second later, like being hit by a car. The wave of force lifted her off her feet. sending her hurtling backwards down the hallway before landing in a heap on the floor. Every muscle in her body ached, throbbing and pulsing as if she'd just run the obstacle course back at the academy for the first time. Slowly she struggled to get up, her arms and legs shaking slightly as she tried to get them under hsr.  _ Uggg. Feels like… haven't slept in… _

She watched as the fox bent his knees slightly, pushing off from the floor and sailing up into the air and through the hole the rat had made when he'd been thrown through the ceiling. 

_ Sweet cheese and crackers _ …  _ come on… move damn it! _

She allowed herself a moment of rest, a single silent moment where she forced herself to take a deep breath. Inhaling until her lungs ached before letting it go. She'd definitely been hit by some kind of entropic wave. She'd fought psychic vampires who had a similar ability, leaving their victims exhausted and weak. No way was the fox one of them though, they were not immune to bullets. The moment of rest had helped though, her muscles no longer ached, now they were just tired; she could work with that. She’d made that work her whole time in the academy. She took off back down the hallway, racing back to the stairwell and up to the next floor. She kicked the metal door open and took off down the new hall, racing to where she'd seen the fox vanish to. She paused against the corner, slowly peeking out to see what was happening.

The Fox had grabbed the rat and was again holding him by the throat, against the wall. The fox growled, his grip on the rats neck tightening, making the rat’s legs kick faster in the air. “Where. Is. It?”

For a moment longer the rat struggled before; Suddenly the rat changed, its head cocking sideways at an odd angle while a strangely calm smile spread across its face. “poor poor little foxy. Which way is up? Which way is down? Can you smell the dead things all around? You wasted your chance. I don't have it and I don't know where it is. You did all this for nothing. Now those that have it know you're here. You'll never be free. Just hell's little whipping rape toy forever and ever.”

The fox snarled, pulling the rat away before slamming his head so hard against the wall that the drywall cracked and cratered from the impact. The rat grunted in pain but began to laugh. “go a head. Kill me. We both know you want to. Kill me, i'll just go back to hell. Maybe when they drag you back they'll let me have first dibs on you. I'd love to take a few pounds of your flesh.” as he spoke the rat's eyes changed, becoming black as night and sin.

A smirk spread across the Fox's face. “oh no. You don't get to go back. I have something else in mind.” A second later the fox opened his mouth, seeming to take a deep breath. Instantly the demeanor of the rat changed. A look of confusing flickered across his face for a second. Then he began to struggle.

“wh-what are you do-doing?! What manner of magic is this? S-STOP!” Judy felt her eyes widen as black smoke began to billow from the rat's mouth. A thick black plume of demonic essence that billowed and writhed as it escaped the rat’s mouth only to be sucked forward into the fox's waiting maw. The rat continued to struggle, his claws coming out to scratch and rip and the Fox's arms, face and hands in a desperate attempt to free himself. The fox didn't move a muscle, his body remaining perfectly still as the whirling cloud of fell into his waiting jaw. “STOP IT! YOU CANNOT KILL ME! YO-”

the rat's body jerked, a kind of spasm rippling through it as the last of the smoke left its body. A moment later the fox dropped the rat, sending him to the ground in a silent pile. She knew she should seize the moment. That she should attack him. Perhaps with some kind of psychic attack? And yet…

She watched as the Fox's eyes drifted closed, his head rolling back to look upwards for a second before-

The air around the fox rippled, waving as if it were water someone had thrown a stone into. She watched as the lights around the fox flickered. The light sputtering and buzzing for a moment before exploding, showing the fox in a cascade of sparks. A second later she felt the wave hit her, like a storm of static that scratched and clawed at the inside of her skull. She grunted. her paws going to her temples to try and block out the noise. Over the sound of static the fox spoke. “you're a protector rabbit, a guard; I respect this.” Her eyes widened as she suddenly realized he knew she was there. She pushed herself around the corner, her weapon again pointed at the fox as he turned to look at her. With a jolt she found his eyes were not black as in the dream but… green. “BUT… continue to interfere and I will not hesitate to kill you.”

Her eyes narrowed at him. She could shoot him. But she already knew bullets, at least normal ones had no effect on him. That left her with her knife and her psychic abilities. She made up her mind in a split second. She'd seen him toss the rat around like a ragdoll, so a physical assault was out of the question, that only left her one option. She focused on the fox, on the clawing scratching buzzing feeling she'd felt only seconds ago. And when she could almost feel it in her skull she released it, allowing it flow through her and-

The fox grunted softly, his face twitching slightly in discomfort. It was working, at least a little bit. She focused harder, recalling the time she'd broken her leg, the time she'd dislocated her arm, the time she'd been tased by a thug and the time she'd been shot in the shoulder. Pouring the memories of those moments into the fox, willing him to feel the moments as clearly as she had. The attacks had an effect, but not nearly as powerful as she'd had hoped. He barely even flinched, instead his face simply twitched in discomfort. She needed to do more. She nee-

The fox grinned at her. “cute trick. Let me show you one of mine.” A second later she gasped as an invisible force grabbed her, dragging her forward and into the fox's waiting grip. She choked as his fingers closed around her throat, just tightly enough to make breathing difficult. In front of her he smirked. “you're cute, thinking you can hurt me with such weak mental abilities. Still though… I'm impressed you had the balls to try...”

She growled at him reflexively bringing her gun up and planting it against his chest. Through his iron grip on her throat she managed to speak. “Don't. Call. Me. Cute.”

He continued to smirk at her, seemingly unphased by the gun pressed against his heart. “just the truth Fluff. But now I must be going. So….”

He lifted her off the ground, bringing her within a few inches of his eyes. Struggling weakly against the grip Judy felt her eyes connect with his, the green orbs somehow capturing her gaze and forbidding her from looking away. A second later she felt the strength drain from her body. Her struggling stopped as her body went limp in his grip. He moved then, tossing her sideways as if she were a plastic cup or some other piece if random garbage. She slammed into the wall, her head connecting solidly with the hard surface making stars burst before her eyes. She managed to remain consciousness, though only just, watching as the fox remained for just a moment longer before seeming to dissolve into a pillowing whirling churning smoke that arked and spiraled down the hallway and out of sight. 

Her body refused to move, refused to do anything. Gods she'd never, NEVER been this tired. Ever muscle, joint, bone and hair on her body ached and begged for sleep. Even as she struggled to move she felt her eyes drift closed, the inky blackness of unconsciousness washing over her.


	4. Chapter 4

The city was dark. Above her stars shown down as she moved through the streets. Unlike the mammalian parts of town, the avian district didn't have a bustling nightlife. The streets were almost deserted, the only exception being the occasional owl out for a midnight stroll. For the most part she kept to herself. Ignoring the looks the owls gave her as she continued on her way. It had been three days since she'd woken up in the hospital. Three days since the fox from her dreams had appeared and attacked the housing projects. And for the last three days she'd been stuck in bed. With doctors fussing over her, telling her that she needed to rest, that her body was exhausted and blah bla blah blah.

To everyone else it just looked like she'd passed out due to exhaustion. Even Bogo had come to visit her, apologizing to her when he'd found out he'd been running her ragged. He'd even given her the next few days off, and she didn't even have to use her paid time off for them. Of course none of them knew the truth. That she wasn't exhausted from being run ragged by her job, but that the fox had simply sucked the energy out of her body. They'd probably think she was insane if she tried to tell them. So she'd played the part, pretending to be embarrassed about what had happened. Trying to tell Bogo she was still fit for duty, even going so far and to try and get out of the hospital bed they had her in. Of course the exhaustion she did feel wasn't an act, even three days later she could still feel the dull ache in her joints. Going home and going to bed sound very VERY tempting right now. But she'd gotten the message, a mass group text sent my jasper to dozens of hunters and other people.

Need to talk about current events. Come to Ravenholm. 

A shorter text had come a moment later. That one address just to her

Please come if you can judy. We need to talk about what happened 

So she was out at this ungodly hour, moving through darkened streets towards the still aglow mansion in the distance. She didn't have to know on the door like before. When a group text like this was sent the doors were left unlocked, meaning she could let herself in. Pausing for a moment she groaned, enjoying the feeling of the warm home as she stripped off her coat and hung it up on a small hook. She could hear the sounds of voices, people talking, debating and arguing. She followed the voices, moving down the large stone hallways of the mansion until she found herself standing in the library she and jasper had talked in only a few days ago. Unlike then she and he were alone, at least 30 people lf all sizes and species were there as well. 

“Judy!”

She turned towards the sound of the familiar voice. Fisk, the feline hunter she'd worked with during the vampire raid waved at her from where he was leaning against the wall. Moving towards him she smiled pleasantly. “hey fisk. How's it going?”

The black and white cat shrugged. “its ok. Be nice to know what the hell is going on though. Everyone seems spooked.” as he spoke fisk surveyed the crowd around them. She did the same, looking over the crowds of people. He was right. Everyone there seemed tense, she didn't need to be able to sense them to see that. Several groups of them were drinking, taking long deep mouthfuls from a bottle they were passing around. Others were talking. their voices strained and slightly desperate. A few had pulled books from the shelves and were flipping through them, the speed of the page turns telling her that they weren't actually focusing on the words. 

“ALRIGHT PEOPLE. SHUT THE FUCK UP SO WE CAN GET STARTED!” the sound of jasper's yell cut through the noise of the room. Turning to look in the direction the voice had come from judy felt her eyes narrow slightly. Jasper had appeared in the doorway she'd walked through, but he wasn't alone. To jasper's right a tall slightly curvy female snake walked along with him; her green and purple scales glinting in the light of the room. As jasper and minerva stepped into the room jasper continued to speak. “ok. Four days ago something cause a wave of psychic backlash to hit the city. That backlash was stronger than anything i've ever felt before. And yes, i'm old so that is a big fucking deal. Not only that but just about everyone who is sensitive in the city felt it, as well as a few thousand people who aren't. I don't have to tell any of you how… odd that is.”

As he finished speaking jasper looked to minerva. Judy watched as the green and purple snake's tongue flickered out past her lips for a moment before she began to speak. “ssseveral of my sssisssters managed to ssscry the sssource of the dissssturbance to an plot of land jussst outsssside the city. They reported finding a field were the grassssesss and tresss had been desssstroyed in a large circle. And in the middle of that circle they found a pit and pine box. With sssignsss that sssomething had clawed itssss way out.” as she finished speaking minerva's tongue again flickered.

Jasper looked around at them. “then there's the attack on the Vermin housing projects. Over 60 people, all ages, all species; overshadowed and driven to near savage madness. And from what we've learned it was all the doing of a single being, a fox in a black suit and blood red tie. Not only was he able to overshadow a crowd of people as well as kill a dozen mobsters like they were nothing, he also displayed a wide range of abilities. Invulnerability to normal bullets, telekinetic attacks, enhanced strength, psionic and psychic abilities and… he may or may not have… sucked a demon out of it's host and then…. ate it. W-”

“WAIT WHAT?! IT ATE A DEMON?!”

Jasper nodded. “possibly.”

Jasper shifted to look to minerva who began to speak again. “one of ny sssisssters worksss at the hosssspital where the posssessssed was taken. Ssshe examined him and reported what ssshe found. Definity demonic posssssessssion. But no tracesss of the demon remain. Itsss ssssimply gone. Not even its corupsssion remainsss. And thatsss sssupposssssed to be inpossssible.”

Judy groaned, the constant hissing of minerva's voice was starting to give her a headache. “jasper. How is it impossible. I mean i can pull demons out of people, hell you've watched me do it.”

Jasper turned, nodding to her. “yes. But you cannot consume a demon. You can force a demon out of its host, but that is it. But according to your report, this thing consumed the demon. and if what minerva's acolyte found is correct and it also absorbed the corruption from that rat’s soul… then we may be dealing with something very rare… or something we've never seen before. Whatever it is, its powerful and its dangerous. It-”

A deep voice cut jasper off. “how do we know its dangerous? It killed a demon and a bunch of gangbangers. Sounds more like a vigilante than a monster.”

A kind of nervous murmur went through the gathered hunters at that, their collective aura shifting to a feeling of fear and confusion. After a few seconds jasper continued to speak. “until we know more about what this thing is. Or who or what summoned it, i'm cancelling all non-priority missions. Any mission that can't be finished by the end of this week is on hold. Everyone stock up and sit tight. Once we know more we'll send word. Understand?”

Again the room responded, mutterings of understanding filling the air. Again the collective aura of the room changed. The fear was still there, like an odd chill that was cold without making you shiver. But there were also ripples of anger, tides of frustration and nerves, and lights of curiosity. All these feelings swirled and mixed together, filling the room with a. array of sensations. Next to her judy heard fisk speak. “fucking great. We're on standby.”

She looked to him, noting his aura was one of the bones with frustration in it. She shrugged. “makes sense. No point throwing hunters at it if we don't know what it is. And if it's killing monsters, then why get in its way until we know we have to?”

Fisk rolled his eyes. “just don't like sitting with our thumb us our ass. Rather have a plan.”

The other hunters were starting to leave now. The crowd slowly leaving the library leaving jasper, judy, fisk and a few other stragglers behind. Turning judy watched as jasper moved to join her and fask. “judy. Glad you could come.”

She smiled at him. “of course.”

Jasper looked at her seriously. “how are you feeling?”

She sighed at that question. “i'm ok i guess. I mean, i'm still sorta wiped from whatever it did to me. Hospital says i slept for like… 17 hours straight. They thought i might be in a coma. But… i feel ok.”

Jasper nodded. “and… no dreams… or visions?”

She shook her head. “no. I just crash. Not even normal dreams.”

Jasper bit his lip but nodded. “at least no nightmares. Look,” he dug into his pocket before producing $10 and handing it to her. “down the street there's a little diner. They have some amazing apple cinnamon pie. Go get yourself some. It always helps me when i feel like crap. It might be a while till anything happens.”

Sighing softly judy took the offering. She'd learned long ago not to turn down jasper's little gifts. As she did so she could not help but notice how hungry she had suddenly become. For a moment she wondered if jasper had something to do with that. As an empath he was more than capable of making people feel hunger. Then again, she hadn't eaten much today anyways. A bagel for breakfast, a quick bowl of cereal for lunch and she'd skipped dinner all together. Pocketing the money she smiled. “ok. Thanks jasper.”

Next to her fisk spoke up. “i'll come too. Could use some coffee.”

Judy turned to nod at him before looking back to jasper a bit more seriously. “so… what do you think this thing is?”

Jasper shrugged. “i don't know. Could be a lot of things.”

Judy shook her head. “but what do YOU think it is?”

Jasper remained silent for a moment in thought before responding. “the grave it might have come from, the immunity or at least the lack of caring towards bullets and your mental attacks, and the murder boner it seems to have demons… i think its some kind of mutated revenant.”

Fisk cocked his head. “revenant? I've never heard of that. What is it?”

Jasper shrugged. “some condemned tortured soul that managed to escape hell and get back to its body. Theyre rare, the last confirmed one was seen almost…. 60 years ago during world war two. But… even then… i still don't know. Revenants can't consume demons. And they don't show restraint like this thing did.”

Judy raised an eyebrow. “restraint?”

Jasper nodded. “revenants are crazed, deranged, their time in hell pushing their minds in a place beyond insanity and madness. Theyre wild and feral, theyll attack anything. But this things was methodical, cunning. It overshadowed people to make a distraction and then attacked a specific target in search of something. That isn't normal revenant behavior. Look, i don't know what this thing is. Maybe it's the first its its kind. Maybe its the bastard offspring of two demons hate fucking each other for a few thousand years. Maybe it's lucifer himself on holiday. Just be careful, both of you. Keep safe and keep quiet. And once we know what this thing is well launch a hunting party and send back to wherever it came from.”

Fisk nodded. “huraa!”

Jasper smiled and looked to judy. “keep us updated if you have any more dream. Ok?”

She nodded, her stomach rumbling slightly as she did so. “ok.”

Jasper grinned. “enjoy the pie. Goodnight you two.”

\-----

Just as jasper had said the diner was a short walk from the manor. Pushing open the door Judy smiled as a small bell dinged, signaling they'd arrived. The diner was mostly empty. At the counter a wolven waitress in a slightly tinged white dress and a pink apron was lazily counting the money from the register, but looked up at them as they stepped inside. “hey folks. Have a seat anywhere. I'll be witcha in a moment.”

Judy nodded, smiling politely before dropping herself into the nearest booth. She groaned softly as the worn fake plastic material cradled her. Across the table fisk sat down watching her. “you ok?”

Judy nodded but allowed her eyes to drift closed. “yeah. Just… tired.”

Fisk spoke a moment later. “didn't think the otter was that crazy of a lay.”

Judy chuckled. She knew he knew why she was really tired. But she appreciated the teasing. “he was decent. Enthusiastic for sure.”

Fisk chuckled and rolled his eyes. “which means he blew three second after you pulled his pants down, and then spent the whole night trying to make it up to you.”

Again judy chuckled. “oh no he didn't… the opposite actually.”

Fisk cocked his head. “so he-”

But fisks voice died as the waitress returned, professional but insincere smile covering her face. “what can i get you folks?”

Judy opened her eyes. “a slice of apple pie please.” 

Fism shrugged. “coffee, black. Please.”

The waitress smiled and wandered away, leaving them alone again. After a few moments fisk spoke. “you know. If you like, you can crash at my place. Its closer than yours.”

Judy raised an eyebrow suggestively. “why fisk, are you propositioning me?”

Fisk put on a smirk. “only if you can handle it bunbun.”

She smirked back at him. “dunno, i can handle a lot.”

She knew he wasn't meaning it like that. That he wasn't looking for sex and that he was just looking to be helpful. But the teasing and playing was nice. Helping to diffuse some of the tension she was feeling. After a few moments fisk chuckled. “don't forget bunbun, i was in the army. I spent MONTHS in a warzone with no women and no time for release. You might be the ONLY girl in the city who can actually keep up with me”

She had to admit, that piqued her interest a bit. Fisk was certainly not unattractive and he would certainly be… bigger than the other men she'd been with. Across from her fisk seemed to know what she was thinking. He chuckled at her. “oh? Did that pique floppy the coppsi's interest?”

Judy raised an eyebrow. “maaaybe. I-”

She broke off as the waitress returned, putting the plate of pie in front of her while pouring fisk his coffee. Smiling thankfully at her judy moved, grabbing her fork before cutting into the pie and… 

Her ears twitched as a shudder rolled up her spine, the only warning before she felt a sharp claw like hand grab her ears and slam her head down against the wooden table. Stars exploded in front of her eyes. Across from her she felt fisk jerk as he too was slammed against the table. She yelped, her feet scrambling on the floor. Managing to drag herself away from the clawed hand. She blinked, struggling to understand what was happening as-

In front of her she watched as the waitress who brought them their food grabbed fisk by the throat, lifting him up off the ground before bringing him crashing down onto the table which broke apart as his body hit. She scrambled to her feet, sizing up the situation. The waitress’s eyes had turned yellow with horizontal black slits. _Fuck, a furus hag_ . Behind her she could see the chief coming out of the kitchen, the raccoon’s mouth split open, revealing a maw of gaping teeth; a large cleaver held in his right hand. _Another leech._ a sound behind her made her quickly look to her side, right a slip ferret leaning against the bar, his teeth bared and his eyes black. Fuck, Fuck, FUCK!

The waitress spoke in a cruel voice. “what will the bunny do? save her friend? Or herself?”

The racoon chuckled, spinning the cleaver in his paw. “who cares. Her legs look tasty, nice and plump, just the way i like them.”

The ferret remained silent. She bit her lip. She was out numbered for sure. Fisk was out cold, and as skilled as she was at fighting… these three would easily overpower her. She had no other choice. She hated it, it made her feel like a coward and a bad friend but… there was no other choice. She dived to the side, sliding over a nearby table while grabbing the saltshakers from it. Ripping the metal caps off she threw the salt at the hag allowing herself a small smirk as the salt plum hit the waitress making her scream and hiss in pai-

She ducked, a loud high pitched whistling her warning as the vampire racoon threw his cleaver at her, narrowly missing her leg and instead embedding itself in the wall behind her.

“enough of this.”

A second later three spots of sharp pain pierced her shoulder, making her yelp and… a moment later her arm went numb. She staggered now, off balance as she found three red feathered tranquilizer darts sticking out of her shoulder. The ferret chuckled, holding the gun. “night night bunny.”

She felt like she was underwater, her muscles shaking as they tried to keep her up. Her vision swam and blurred and a moment later the whole world seemed to move as the floor rushed up at her.

“put them with the others.”

\---------

Slowly he began to wake, the visions of pain and torture and sin dissolving into blackness leaving him alone once more. He'd seen them, all of them. Every sin every evil act. Every moment of lust, rage, sloth, pride, envy and gluttony. He'd watched as good men and women had suffered, sometimes killed other times worse. He'd seen men feed their greed until it consumed then and led to their destruction. He'd seen woman and children used and manipulated, sold like cattle and discarded as if they were nothing. He'd seen greats acts of defiance and bravery and the horrors those acts had earned. He'd watched it all, not just the sin committed while inside the rat. But also the wolf, the snake, the otter, the elephant, the leopard and so many many more; every sin from every vessel from the moment the demon had been spawned until the very second he'd absorbed it.

Slowly he began to move, stirring from the spot he'd settled in. He was in an abandoned building, a den for junkies and tweakers and homeless. That was something he'd learned a long time ago. No one ever expecting a being of his power stay in a literal hole in the wall. He'd hidden from demons that way, at least for a time. And the wards he'd set up around him would keep the mortals away, filling them with dread and fear if they got to close. Thus Ensuring he could sleep and process in pease. Slowly he got to his feet his new target in his mind. The rat had been right. He didn't know where it was. He was a bug. Less than that, less than a worm, barely worthy to be called a demon. But in the rat’s memories had been another, an older demon. More subtle, more conniving more devious, currently possessing a ferret that had connections to some kind of guild. A consortium of outsiders and deviants and the wretched. He need to find that ferret, to question him, to find out what he knew and-

“h-h-hey man y-you got some ch-change to spare?”

He looked in the direction of the voice, a filth and mange covered hyena having walked up to him. The hyena was barely able to stand, trembling and shaking from the withdraws he was going through. He turned away from the hyena, sparing a single word for him. “No.”

“oh… w-well… th-thats to b-bad.” A moment later a sharp pain exploded through his side, making him stop walking and turn back to the hyena. The hyena had pulled out a knife and had plunged it into his side, no doubt expecting him to fall to the ground so he would be easier to rob. That hadn't happened and now the hyena’s face was changing, going from a look of desperate glee to shock then confusion and then fear. “h-hey ma-GLK!”

He grabbed the hyena by the throat, lifting him off the ground with one hand. For a moment he considered killing the hyena. It would be easy enough to do so. Just a flick of the wrist and he could snap the hyena's neck. Or a scream to his chest and he could blow a foot wide hole in him. But as he watched the hyena scramble and struggle he felt pity well up inside him. He could see it, the pain the hyena was in. The itching, burning feeling coursing through him, making him feel like he had millions of bugs crawling around under his skin and fur. This mortals soul was not yet gone, not yet beyond redemption and salvation. He could see it, the scales of corruption and virtue, they were shifting, yes. The side of virtue was slowly starting to become lighter than the steadily accruing corruption. But he was not yet beyond saving. Dragging the hyena to eye level he brought his other hand up, pressing his thumb against the hyena's forehead. “be healed.”

A second later his power surged, the smallest modicum flowing from him and into the mortal’s body. He felt the pain melt away. The itching burning feeling of bugs on his skin simply vanished. His power coursed through the mortal's body. Purging it of the poisons and toxins he's taken vice in, burning them away leaving him clean again. A moment later he dropped the mortal, turning away from him before speaking. “i've burned away your taint and addictions. Given you a second chance when it was not deserved. Don't waste it.”

He reached down, pulling the blade he'd been stabbed with out of his side, watching as the metal on the knife began to pit and dull before his eyes. Rust spread along the blade, blooming as if some dusty red flower. A second later the blade dissolved into dust. Dropping the now useless blade to the ground. He could hear the hyena running, scrambling away from him. He ignored him. 

Enough distractions, he had a ferret to find.

\------------

She was starting to regain consciousness, with that came pain. She grunted, her head throbbing and pulsing as if she'd spent the entire night getting wasted. She groaned, her muscles ached and burned. Almost like they had the first few weeks of the academy. She could hear sounds around her, people whispering their voices frantic and scared. There was another sound off in the distance, a sharp voice and the sound of… struggling?

It took all her strength to force one of her eyes open, the blurry world meeting her gaze. She groaned again, this time a bit louder as memories of what had happened rushed back to her. She and Fisk had been at a dinner. They'd been laughing and flirting and then … they'd been attacked. A furus hag, a vampire and a demon. She willed herself to move, her muscles aching but slowly responding as she managed to sit up. The world was coming into focus now. She was surrounded by people, a dozen at least. She blinked slowly, doing her best to stay awake as she looked around. “judy!”

The sound of her name made her turn, her wolrd spinning slightly as she did so. Gods her head felt beyond messed up. Like she was stoned, drunk and upside down all at the same time. She blinked again, doing her best to focus on the person who had called her name. Slowly fisk's black and white face came into view. “hey… fisk… wha happened?”

Fisk shook his head. “we got our asses handed to us.”

She blinked, her gaze looking around at the blurry shapes around them. “where are we?”

Fisk shook his head again. “don't know. Some kind of abandoned warehouse i think. Judy,” his voice became urgent. “the people from the dinner are here… and others… theyre… torturing people. Demanding answers.”

Her vision was starting to clear now, enough that she could see the worry in fisk's face. “answer? To what?”

Fisk opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a sharp cruel voice. “last chance hunter filth. WHO SUMMONED THAT MONSTER AND HOW DO WE KILL IT?!”

There was several moments of silence and then… 

“go… to hell.”

“WRONG ANSWER!”

judy's vision cleared just in time to watch as the furus hag from the diner plunged the cheetah's head back into the barrel. Instantly the cheetah began to struggle his feet scrapping and kicking helplessly as water sloshed and spilt over the side of the metal barrel. She could see the fury in the furus hag's face, the cruel sadistic smile; she was enjoying this. Standing behind the barrel watching it all was the feret, the demon from before; the one who'd shot her. The cheetah’s movements were slowly now, his struggling becoming less and less until it stopped all together and he hung limply in the wolf's grip. A second later she pulled his head from the barrel and pushed him away, his body crumpling to the floor dead. “who's next?”

Weakly she sat there, unable to move or even speak as the feret strode forward and stood in front of the caged area they were being held in. She watched as he threw his head back, his mouth opened wide. A moment later black swirling smoke erupted from his mouth and arked through the air, passing through the chain link fence imprisoning them before enveloping one of them, a young beaver. She knew what the demon was doing; it was possessing him. Weakly she struggled to focus. As an exorcist she had power over demons. If she could focus… she could force the demon out… maybe even weaken it…

But pain bubbled up in her head, her temples aching and throbbing; breaking concentration. She watched as the beaver moved, stepping forward before being let out of the cage and walking over to the water barrel. A moment later the demon left him, repossessing the feret while the wolf grabbed the beaver who began to struggle in her grip. “now then hunter scum. What is that thing? And how do we kill it?”

The wolf would ask that same question three times. And each time the beaver would say he didn't know, each time becoming more and more desperate. After the third time the wolf didn't let him come back him. Holding his head under just like the cheetah until his legs stopped moving and he hung limply in her grip. 

“oh look, little Ms Salt Bitch is awake. She's next. I INSIST.”

Judy steeled herself, watching as the ferret looked at her. “fine. But you get her.”

The hag grinned cruelly. “with pleasure.”

Taking a deep calming breath judy watched as the wolf approached the cage, speaking as she came closer. “ **MOVE.** ” as she spoke she made a sweeping gesture with her arms and paws. A second later the others in the cage moved, either being pushed or pulled by a wave of telekinetic energy; making them part like the red sea. She bit her lip trying to think of a way out, even as the wolf moved in and stood before her. A second later pain erupted through her skull as the wolf grabbed her by the ears and began to drag her away. She yelped, the pain cutting through the numbness she still felt in her body, her paws weakly batting at the wolf's paws, trying to remove the wolf's grip on her ears. It was useless, as she found herself dragged from the cage and to the barrel of water.

Suddenly she was dragged upwards, and found herself level with the ferret who almost looked bored. “alright ra-”

But the ferret's words were cut off as judy's head was shoved forward and down, plunging into the barrel of water. For several heartbeats she held her breath, willing the air in her lungs to last until she was-

A second later her mouth opened, an involuntary scream of pain exploding from her lungs as she felt the wolf drive her elbow down hard against her spine. She was struggling now, water filling her mouth and lung making her head spin an-

She gasped and spluttered, coughing and choking as her was wrenched from the barrel by the wolf who laughed cruelly at her. “that's for the salt you threw bitch!” the wolf's grip on her ears tightened making judy yelp in pain as she was dragged around to look at the ferret who had a disapproving expression on his face.

“are you done?”

The wolf growled warningly. The ferret rolled his eyes before speaking. “first chance hunter; what is that thing and how do we stop it?”

She shook her head weakly. “don't know we thought you su-”

“WRONG!”

Her words were cut off as she was again plunged back down into the water. She tried again to her her breath, doing her best to keep water from filling her lungs again. The seconds ticked by, her lungs slowly starting to ache and burn until it they felt like they were being squeezed and crushed by the ringing in her ears. She was beyond her limit now, her mouth opening reflexively to try and breath, only for water to flood her body instead of air. She struggled, her legs weakly kicking and scrambling, a useless attempt since she was being held off the grou-

Pain lanced through her head as she was pulled back up and out of the water. She gagged and coughed, water erupting from her mouth in a kind of retching hurl as air filled her lungs. Again she was turned to face the ferret who looked bored. “second chance hunter; what is it and how do we kill it?”

Her head was throbbing, her ears wouldn't stop ringing and her lungs were burning like they were on fire. “WE DON'T KNOW!”

Her voice echoed around the concrete warehouse. She felt the wolf's grip on her ears tighten again but the ferret held up his hand to stop her. “what were you going to say before? You thought… what?”

She glared at the ferret for a moment. “we thought YOUR kind summoned it and then lost control.”

The ferret frowned at her. “and why would we summon something we couldn't control?”

She shook her head weakly. “why do any of you do anything that you do?”

The ferret remained silent for several seconds before speaking. “this is pointless. None of them know anything. Kill them all, then meet me at the usual place. We need to come up with a plan.”

The wolf chuckled. “with pleasure.”

A moment later her head was shoved back under the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> evil cliffhanger noises*


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey folks.  
> i deleted and then reposted this chapter so that people who arent ao3 members could leave comments.  
> didnt realize i still had that turned on. sorry.

It hadn't taken him long to find his prey. The city may have reeked of sin and corruption but every demon's scent was unique. From the rat's memories he'd gotten a whiff, the smallest most faintest of scents from the ferret, just what the rat had been able to detect. But it was a start, enough for him to narrow the scent down. It had taken him a few hours, standing above the city on the ledge of a building, his nose sniffing the air; sifting through the smells and scents. The city was a maze. A bundle of scents, sin, fear, hope, anger, desperation; all of them mixing and melding into a nearly overwhelming smell that left him almost shaking. But he had to focus, the ferret, find the ferret. He pulled up the memories from the rat. He'd only met the ferret once or twice, but it had always been in the industrial part of the city. That helped.

And now he stood in zootopia industrial. The smells of mortals were lesser here. Replaced instead by the sickening bubbling frothing acrid stench of pollution. His nose wrinkled slightly at the smell. But he pushed through the haze, allowing his powers to lead him. He could still smell it, the faint traces of sin. They wafted through the district. The spicy hotness of anger mixed with the cold bland smell of death; someone had been murdered here. A sweet smell that was tinged with salt; someone had had sex nearby… several times. The damp musky smell of greed; no doubt the factory owners and executives looking to squeeze every cent out of their workers. Even the workers left smells, their sins and vices like a subtle flavor under the main course. Lust, greed, pride, desire.

Then he caught it, the faintest almost imperceivable hint of brimstone and pain. the smell of a demon for sure. He followed the trail, slinking through the park following the trail. as he did so the scent grew stronger, mixing and melding with other scents; smells of blood and magic. no doubt vampires and some kind of witch. so, this demon was teaming up. that would make this fun. Silently he approached the source of the smell, a large warehouse. His ears flicked the sounds of struggling coming from inside. Quick as a shadow he circled the warehouse finding no guards or sentries. Effortlessly he slipped through a door making his way through several deserted rooms before slipping out onto the warehouse floors behind a large stack of crates and equipment. He could see them now. The ferret was here as was the magic user he'd smelled and a mortal who had been captured and was now being interrogated. He watched as the ferret spoke, his voice sounding confident but with the faintest hint of fear in it. “This is pointless. None of them knows anything. Kill them all. Then meet me at the usual place. We need a plan.”

The magic user; a female wolf laughed. "With pleasure." A second later the mortal's head vanished as it was shoved back into a large barrel filled with water. ' _Ah, waterboarding and drowning… good times.'_

He watched as the ferret turned and began to leave the warehouse. Now was his chance. Stepping out from the doorway he'd been hiding in he spoke raising his voice slightly. “How about this for a plan? You give me what I want and I make your death relatively painless?”

He watched as the ferret spun around, while the female wolf released the captured prisoner she'd been drowning. He watched as the mammal fell to the ground, coughing and spluttering weakly. ' _She looks familiar.'_

But he had no time to focus on that now. In front of him the ferret's face had twisted into a snarl. “HE'S HERE!" 

The sound of fear in the ferret's voice made him smile. “Oh yes. The big bad fox is here. So be a good little demon and return what was stolen from me. Or don't,” he began to walk forward. "that would be more fun.”

His eyes watched the ferret and wolf. The ferret was trying to act calm, but he could see the way his jaw had clenched. A sign he was acting. The wolf was looking at him cautiously, her eyes narrowed and focused on him. As he drew closer he watched as one of the wolf's hands vanished into a pocket for a moment before producing a small object which she held in her fingers; her foci.

“I'll give you one chance witch. Walk away now. My quarrel isn't with you. Walk away and you may live. Or don't, and I'll obliterate you.”

The wolf's eyes flickered towards the door before she shook her head. "sorry, can't do that. He and I have a deal. And I kept my end, so it's only fair he keep his.”

Nick shrugged in response. "very we-”

His words broke off as he felt something. The faintest of changes in the air being the only warning. To a mortal it would have been unnoticeable and undetectable. But to him a big flashing neon sign might as well have materialized out of thin air and blared the words 'vampire rushing in behind you’. He waited, time slowing around him as he felt the vampire getting closer and closer. If he was being honest he was a tad impressed. The speed at which the vampire was moving he must have been little more than a blurry shadow to everyone else watching. _He's fast. Not my kind of fast. But fast._ In front of him he watched as the ferret's eyes twinkled, no doubt thinking the trick was working and that he was about to be caught completely off guard. The wolf seemed similarly excited, her lips twitched up in an almost amused smile. For a few moments his eyes drifted to the crumpled and half drowned mortal at the wolf's feet. The mortal was facing away from him, allowing him to only see the back of her head. And yet… the grey fur and large rabbit ears. Could it be the exorcist from before? He'd have to look in on that… after he was done.

He smiled, the faintest feeling of the vampires outstretched claws tickling the back of his neck. In a flash he moved. To everyone else it probably looked like he just vanished, seeming to dissolve into thin air. Even the vampire seemed to be surprised, his eyes widening as the target he's gotten so close to simply moved, although unlike everyone else he could see what had actually happened. Nick spun sideways, turning to face the vampire who had gotten in too close to avoid what happened next. The blow came full force, his fist coming sideways to connect along the side of the vampire leopard's face. Instantly the vampire changed direction, the blow easily strong enough to break half the bones in his body as it sent him rocketing sideways and into a fenced off cage where other prisoners were being held. For a split second Nick paused, just long enough to watch the half broken leopard break through the metal linked fence before turning back to the ferret and…

His eyes narrowed as more vampires appeared, some dropping from the rafters, others rushing out of the shadows. 7… 9… 11… 13… 13 vampires. “This will be fun."

\-------

Fisk was no stranger to standing by and watching things happen. That had been about 60% of his job in the military. Find a place, stay there and wait for the opportune moment to do something. Sometimes that something was firing a rifle at a person's head. Sometimes it was pressing a button to activate a bomb. Sometimes it was just to be in that spot to prove you could be. The key to all of it was to not hesitate. The military had taught him that. NEVER HESITATE. Hesitate while getting shot at; dead. Hesitate while sneaking into an enemy camp; dead. Of course the real trip was that hesitation was just part of a person's thought process, a way for the mind to go 'whoa whoa, let's think about this.’ he'd learned quickly not to hesitate. If he had an opening he used it. If he had the shot he took it. If he saw an opportunity be pounced on it. That's what had saved him on his last mission, and it was what was going to save them all now.

In front of them Fisk watched as the mysterious fox stood there, straight backed and tall; completely unresponsive to the vampire rushing in behi-

In less than the time it took Fisk to blink the fox spun around his fist collided with the side of the vampire leopard's face. Even from 15 feet away Fisk could hear the sounds of breaking bones as the vampire hurtled backwards and straight towards them. “DOWN!"

he grabbed the nearest hunter, a scared and traumatized pangolin before yanking him out of the way just in time. The chainlink fencing might as well have not even been there for all the resistance it put up. The metal posts wailed as they bent under the force of the leopard's body hitting the chain link. A split second later they bent backwards as the linking broke as the vampire crashed into the ground inside the cage. Scrambling forward Fisk grabbed the vampire by the scruff of his shirt. He could feel the leopard moving, groaning weakly as it tried to recover from the blow it had received. Frantically looking around fisk's eyes fell on just what he needed. When one of the metal poles had bent it had actually snapped like a twig, and now the part still sticking out of the ground was little more than a large three foot section of pointing protruding metal. Dragging the vampire forward, Fisk ignored the weak struggling. He knew the vampire was probably already starting to heal from his injuries. He'd only have a few more seconds.

Lashing out with his foot Fisk kicked the vampire in the chest, a feeling of satisfaction rippling through him as he felt the vampire's ribs rebreak, making him scream in pain. Dragging the vampire forward Fisk pulled back the leopard's face before shoving it down onto the metal spike sticking out of the floor. For a split second there was the sickening sound of a warm and wet squelch, the sound of the spike doing its job. Luckily that sound vanished a split second later as the vampire's body began to burn and hiss as it disintegrated. Without pause he turned, noting that most of the hunters had begun climbing through the hole in the cage wall the vampire had made and were now spilling out onto the warehouse floor. Most of them were running, no doubt looking for exits to escape through. He turned his attention to Judy, grey furred rabbit was laying in a heap on the ground. But a second later his attention was pulled elsewhere as a feral and furious roar ripped through the warehouse.

Jerking Fisk watched as a vampirized bobcat lunged at the mysterious fox, it's mouth open and teeth exposed in a vicious snarl. The fox didn't even blink, simply sidestepped the charging bobcat whole bringing his arm up before forming a fist and slamming in down onto the back of the bobcat’s head. The concrete floor of the warehouse shook from the force the bobcat hit the floor with. The concrete cracked and cratered and a moment later Fisk caught the unmistakable smell of burning flesh as the vampire's body burned away. The fox had killed the vampire… with nothing more than a single blow to the back of the head… with his bare paw. _What the fuck is he?_

\---------

The other vampires rushed him, half of them running straight at him like a wall of snapping teeth and ripping claws. The other half held back, some of them splitting off to try and circle him. Not a bad tactic. Few mammals could effectively fight attackers coming from three different directions at once. Sadly for the vampire's it wouldn't work on him, he wasn't like most mammals. As the first vampire neared her he flexed his paws, jet black claws extending from his fingers. As the first vampire drew closer he moved, his claws coming up in a flash of red and black. A second later black blood exploded from the vampire's as his claws caught the tiger just next to his jugular before ripping out his entire throat. The tiger's paws went to his neck, trying to stem the fountaining geyser of blood that was erupting from him. Even as he did so the tiger's body was starting to burn, planting his foot against the tiger's stomach he used the quickly burning tiger to his advantage; shoving him backwards into the other vampires charging from the front while launching himself backwards so he could face the ones trying to get in behind him. He grinned as the charging vampire's eyes widened. He grabbed the vampire, a medium built wolf by the neck, in something reminiscent of a headlock. A second later he spun himself around, his back slamming into the concrete floor but also driving the wolf's face into the ground; hard. Releasing his grip he rolled backwards getting to his feet just as the wolf was lifting his half broken face out of the concrete. He lashed out, his foot connecting solidly with the wolf's jaw, no doubt shattering it but also having the added effect that the wolf was lifted off the floor and sent hurtling through air and into some kind of overhanging office that overlooked the warehouse.

He allowed himself a moment of satisfaction, enjoying the sound of the wolf's body crashing through the window to the office. But his attention was pulled away as the remaining vampires charged him enmass. It was like trying to fight a shredder. Each block and Dodge made pain lance through his body as the vampires’ claws slashed and tore at his flesh. He ignored the pain, pushing it out of his mind. He'd survived having every inch of his flesh ripped and torn from his body and then being tossed into a bath of salt. He could survive a few slashes and cuts; his body would heal anyways so it wasn't like they could actually hurt him. But there was a problem, one he couldn't overcome. The vampires outnumbered him. He may have been faster, stronger, more powerful, better endowed and way WAY better looking but he was only one fox, and they were still 11 vampires. Well 12 if you included the one he'd sent flying into the office. Balling his paws into fists he brought them up above his head before slamming them into the ground. It was a dramatic move, a bit flashier than what he liked to use when fighting. But it had the desired effect. The concrete stone floor cracked and shattered, several large slabs breaking loose and cratering the floor. At the same time he threw himself backwards, putting 50 feet between him and the vampires. If he could fight them two or three at a time then he could pick them off, reduce their numbers until-

His head jerked upwards the sound of grinding metal echoing through the warehouse. Above him a large track helped to move massive shipping containers through the warehouse. And one such container was directly above him and now was falling towards him. He had only a second to react, his paws coming up to catch the heavy metal container as it fell. Instantly his body screamed in pain as the weight of the container slammed down on him. There was no denying that it hurt, the container easily weight a ton, maybe two. Even with his strength he staggered, dropping to one of his knees as the full weight bore down on him. He grunted, grinding his teeth as he watched the vampires watching him. They were grinning, laughing; they thought they'd won. A few of them were talking loudly, saying how they'd cook him, while others seemed to want to eat him raw. his arms shook from the effort of keeping the container held up and he actually was forced to drop to one knee or risk losing his balance. Even as he grunted, struggling to keep the container up he could hear them laughing at him, mocking him. They thought they'd won. They were wrong, so very VERY wrong.

His blood boiled and burned as he felt power surge through his body. It felt like someone had poured liquid fire through his veins, making him feel as if he was back in hell for a moment. With a snarl he moved, rocking back for just a second before hurling the container away from him and at the approaching vampires who were caught off guard. The container hit dozens of them, shattering their bodies and reducing the lucky ones to ash instantly. The less lucky ones died a moment later as the container collided with the concrete wall of the warehouse, the entire structure shaking as the heavy object slammed against the wall. Growling he got to his feet, his eyes scanned the remaining vampires; only. In a flash he moved, blurring forward he struck low, grabbing the seemingly middle aged leopard by the ankle. With a flick of his wrist he sent the leopard rocketing backwards, slamming into one of the jagged and broken poles that had once held up the fence that had contained the demon and vampire's prisoners. He watched as the leopard jerked, his paws instinctually going to the large metal pole now protruding from his chest, even as the rest of his body dissolved to ash. Just the head vampire, the hag and then his real target left.

The head vampire, the cruel and sadistic looking raccoon roared at him, a sound that probably would have turned his blood cold had he not experienced things a thousand times worse already. A moment later he fucked out of the way, dodging the vampire as it lunged at him snarling. "I'LL KILL YOU, YOU FREAK!"

He didn't respond, the vampire wasn't worth it. He held his ground this time, watching as the vampire drew it's clawed hand back, no doubt trying to use it's enhanced strength to claw at him. He rolled his eyes, the vampires in hell had been much more complex with their tactics. Then again, monsters in hell were deathless, so they could afford to be more creative. It would take this vampire a while to learn that. He dodged the swipe, spinning himself out of the way so the racoon's claws swung through the air where he'd been moments before. As he did so he brought his own paw up, straightening his fingers and extending his claws before lashing out in an arching slash. Instantly the racoon howled in pain, his hand severing from his arm at the wrist, making a fountain of dark black blood erupt from the injury. Even as the racoons bellowed in pain he moved, sweeping the beasts legs out from under him so he fell before bringing his foot down against the vampire's face. For a few seconds he felt resistance, but a few moments later he applied more pressure and the resistance vanished with a loud crunching splattery sound. A second later the vampire dissolved into ash. 

Grunting slightly, Nick felt his skin itch and burn, a sign that the injuries he'd sustained in the fight were healing. But he had no time to celebrate, the smell of burning ozone and the sound of crackling electricity filling his senses a moment later. He threw himself backwards, managing to avoid the whip-like lightbolt that smacked the ground, blasting shards of concrete and stone in every direction. Landing on his feet he turned, finding that the hag had joined the fight, her foci sizzling with magical energy as she took aim at him. More boots of lightning shot towards him, arcing and crackling with power as they tried to catch him like a nest of angry vipers. He dodged most of them, using the distance between him and the hag to avoid her attacks. The few he couldn't Dodge he took full force, grunting in discomfort as thousands of bolts ripped through his body leaving his mouth tasting of copper and his skin and fur sizzling slightly. He ground his teeth together, watching as the hag prepared her next spell. Clearly she drew her power from the elements, lighting being a combination of air and fire. It was a powerful skill to have, but limiting in that the kind of spells elementals could use only really worked at longer ranges. If he could get in close he could overwhelm her, cut her off from the time she needed to cast each spell.

Growling he changed tactics, still dodging and weaving between the bolts of lightning but now moving towards the hag. He watched as she prepared to cast another spell, raising her hands above her head and cupping them together. "No you don't witchy!"

He slammed his fists into the ground, making the concrete shatter and explode upwards. A moment later he lashed out, hurling stones and boulders towards the hag even as he continued to race towards her. The hag's spell faltered, a result of her being forced to change her spell Midway through, conjuring a kind of opaque shield to defend herself from the debris and stones he'd launched at her. He was in range now, all he had to do was break her shield and she'd be at his mercy. Drawing his fist back he struck the opaque shield in front of him. To his surprise the shield didn't break upon impact, the blow had definitely had an effect. From behind the shield he heard the hag grunt with the exertion of keeping the spell going. He drew his other fist back, attacking the shield again. This time as his paw struck the surface the shield gave way, starting with a single crack that started at the top but quickly and quickly raced its way down the shield surface. Another blow to the shield and it shattered, leaving the hag completely exposed with only an expression of-

A moment later an explosion of flames erupted from her mouth, bathing him in its searing burning embrace. For several seconds he found himself just mildly impressed. Most would have cowered in fear after having had their defenses broken. But instead this hag had decided to fight. True, she'd chosen to blast him with fire; probably the most useless elements against him since he'd literally spent centuries covered in nothing but it. Still… it brought her up in his eyes, every so slightly. Enough that he changed his plan of attack. Recoiling he allowed his feet to touch the ground, a moment later and s burst of speed and he was behind the wolven hag who probably thought she'd won and killed him. Reaching out and around he grabbed her by the snout, cutting off her breath of fire with his paw. A second later he jerked, snapping her neck with an audible crack before allowing her body to fall to the ground like a puppet with no more strings. 

To his right he heard a voice mutter under its breath. "Damn hags, useless." 

He turned, finding the ferret still standing there watching him. His arrogant expression had vanished though, no replaced by a look of annoyance and inconvenience. Rolling his head and neck, Nick spoke softly. "No more games. No more proxies no more emissaries. No more stalling."

The ferret chuckled softly, seeming to regain his composure of arrogance. "Fine, let's do this, LIKE REAL MONSTERS!"

a happened a second later, a wave of energy exploding outwards from the ferret like a shockwave of killer intent and dark energy. Nick watched as the ferret roared, his eyes turning jet black as the demon inside him began to act. Slowly the ferret's form began to change, becoming bigger and more inpossing. It's arms and legs began unnaturally long and spindly, looking more like the legs of a spider. It's tail seemed to grow bushier, the hair of it becoming more pronounced and sharp like a club made of needles. It's eyes burned, the black inside them filled with nothing but hatred and fury while it's claws began to glow a blood red color. He'd seen such transformations before, when a demon was particularly powerful it's corruption could be used to bend and warp just about anything. He'd fought armies of such abominations, this would be no different. 

\------+-----

Fisk black was used to doing things he didn't like. Sometimes those things were small, eat this 'food' or 'protect this bad person'. Sometimes those things were big, 'kill this person and make it look like someone else did' or 'keep quiet about what you saw'. Then there were the things he didn't want to do but knew he had to. He hated himself with every step as he'd run from the warehouse, his heart bellowing at him to turn around and go get judy and bring the grey rabbit to safety. His brain on the other hand was telling him to get as far away as possible from the strange fox who could kill vampires bare pawed and call for backup. Luckily he hadn't needed to go far, at the edge of the industrial park they had been brought to a single rickety and half destroyed payphone stood. Grabbing the black receiver Fisk held his breath as he brought it to his ear and almost wept with joy as he found the phone still had a dial tone. Grabbing the front of the coin mechanism he did as he'd been shown by an ocelot in his former squad. Using his claws he pried the front part of the mechanism away, before scanning the internal mechanism for the control that told the machine that a quarter had been inserted. Thank God the phone was an older model, allowing him to find the mechanism with ease. Using his claws he triggered the mechanism, listening as the dial tone changed awaiting his call. He hammered the buttons of the phone his turning to make sure no one or anything was trying to sneak up on him as he made the call. His heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest as he listened to the phone ring once, then twice, then three ti-

"Hello?"

"JASPER!" His voice cracked from the column of his shout. "WE NEED HELP! YOU NEED TO GATHER AS MANY AS YOU CAN AND GET YOUR ASS TO ZOOTOPIA INDUSTRIAL NOW! THAT THING IS HERE AND ITS FIGHTING A DEMON! JUDY IS HURT AND SEVERAL OTHER HUNTERS ARE ALREADY DEAD! WE NEED THE BIGGEST GUNS YOU HAVE AND WE NEED THEM NOW!"

Jasper was silent for several seconds before responding. "I'm coming."

A moment later the line went dead. The feeling of relief was almost palpable, so much so that took fisk's breath away for a second. He let the receiver go, letting it dangle from it's battered and worn cord as he struggled to regain control of himself. Part of him wanted to cry, another part wanted to scream, another wanted to curl up into a ball and still another wanted to charge back into that warehouse. But if he did that he'd be dead, no matter how skilled he was, he was no match for a demon one on one and certainly not against whatever that damned fox was. He bit his lip, holding his breath as he recalled the sight of Judy laying on the floor of that warehouse, unmoving and very possibly dead. 

He closed his eyes, forcing himself to take a deep breath. He wasn't used to feeling helpless, not like this. After three tours of combat and half a dozen covert operations there was very little in the world that could make him feel helpless. Right now though, he may as well have been a newborn kitten.

\-------+-------

Nick grunted as he slowly got to his feet, as he did so he growled, the fur along the back of his neck prickling. The taste of blood was overwhelming in his mouth and a quick pause told him he'd pretty much bitten through his tongue, only a small thread of flesh keeping it connected to the base. He bit down on the thread, severing it before spitting out the length of blooded flesh. Getting to his feet Nick ground his teeth together, a feeling of grinding rumbling pain rippling through his body as he felt his left arm slowly sink back into its socket and heal. But his attention was pulled away from his injuries, making him look up and watch as in front of him the corrupted ferret slowly began to stir from within the crater he'd made in the floor of the warehouse. 

He smirked, watching as the ferret slowly got up, several large sections of rebar sticking out of its chest, exactly where he'd plunged them only moments ago. The ferret moved, his unnaturally long arms folding in so it could grip one of the bars. As it did so it let out a loud hiss, a faint trace of smoke rising from it's paw. A smirk spread across Nick's face. "Iron, the metal of the mortal world. Burns like hell doesn't it. You should be happy, all I have is this diluted crap."

The ferret didn't respond, only growling a low deep warning growl as it tried to pull the length of rebar from its chest. It failed of course, it was hard to grip anything when you were missing three of your fingers. A fact Nick had counted on when he'd bit them off. Now he stood there, slightly amused as the demon struggled to get a grip on the bar between its lack of necessary fingers and the thick layer of red and black blood costing the metal surface. After several moments the demon gave up, letting out another growl as it slumped against the ground. His smirk widened. "Awww, is that it? Is that all you've got? I thought you were some kind of mon-"

His words ended abruptly as the ferret lunged at him, throwing itself at him with the last of its strength in a move of desperation. He didn't even move an inch, instead batting the desperate attack away with a flick of his wrist and the back of his paw. He watched as the ferret tumbled and fell, coming to a stop in a heap of limbs, blood and defeat. It was over, he'd won. (No surprises) he approached the ferret, smirking as he watched it's angry black eyes following him. Reaching out he gripped the ferret by the neck, allowing his own power to surge forward and envelope the twisted abomination before him. The ferret groaned weakly as the corruption dissipated, returning it to its original form and size. Weakly the ferret coughed and spoke. "Y-you wo-wont win. W-we ha-have an army of d-demon… all of th-them ready t-to kill you."

He chuckled coldly. "I fought my way through the armies of hell to escape. Do you really think I can't do it again?" His grip around the ferret's neck tightened making it choke and gag. "Tell me where it is."

This time it was the ferret who chuckled. "You are going to suffer the most agonizing pain imaginable." He rolled his eyes, even as the ferret continued. "I'm going to skin you alive and cover you in salt. Boil you in piss and then scoop out your eyes with a rusty spoon! I'll-"

He growled, grabbing the ferret's face with his other paw. "Been there, done that. Never again demon." A moment later his grip around the ferret's neck tightened, crushing it's throat and killing it. Smoke began to leak from the ferret's mouth, the demon inside trying to escape. But he was prepared for it, bringing the ferret's no lifeless body closer. Opening his mouth, Nick inhaled, feeling the ice cold essence of the demon fill him. It was a bit like being forced to drink 100 gallons of freezing cold water with chunks of ice and razorblades inside it. He could feel the demon struggling, trying to break free of what was happening. But it was useless. He'd fought, killed and consumed demons far more powerful than this pathetic wretch and it was with a feeling of satisfaction that he felt the demon's essence vanished inside him. 

"Thng y."

The faint burbling sound made him blink, his attention pulled back to the ferret he still held in his paw. Blood was dripping from its mouth and nose, it's eyes looked as though they might fall out of its skull at any moment. It was probably it's last breath, the final moment of life for this unlucky creature. He loosened his grip, slowly kneeling down so he could lay the ferret down on the floor. As he did so he felt the ferret's body go limp, a moment later a faint light seemed to shine from inside it, momentarily making it seem to glow before it dimmed. 

Standing up, Nick looked around the warehouse. His eyes scanned his surroundings in case of any last minute attackers appeared. He found no one, finding himself completely alone. Well, no not completely alone. His eyes focused on the grey rabbit he'd seen when he'd entered the warehouse, the one the hag had been in the middle of drowning. Somehow through everything that had happened she'd remained unscathed. Slowly he approached her, slightly surprised that she hadn't been crushed by falling debris or thrown from the floor by one of their titanic blows that had pretty much demolished everything else. As he drew closer to her his earlier suspicions were realized. It was the exorcist from before. So, she was an enemy of the demons too? He supposed that should have surprised him, with her abilities there was no way demons or any kind of monster would leave her alone, she was probably near the very top of everyone's kill list.

Kneeling down he looked her over, she was alive but only just. If she didn't get help in the next few minutes she'd die for sure. For several seconds he contemplated what to do. He could just get up and leave, he didn't owe her anything and technically he had said that if they ever saw each other again she would die. On the other paw it wasn't like she'd ambushed him or anything she might even be of some use to him in the future as either an ally or perhaps a shield. Reaching out to pressed a finger to her chest, about where her ribs were. A moment later a flash of power surged through him, racing through his body and into hers. 

She jerked, her mouth and eyes opening as she struggled to take a breath. A moment later she scrambled onto her side, her chest heaving and retching as she coughed up lungfuls of water. He watched her for a few moments, long enough to make sure she'd be ok before standing up and turning to-

A faint whistling sound met his ears, making them pique and twitch curiously. A second later a small jab of pain hit him in the back, making him front and turn. Some kind of dark was sticking out of his back, a gift of red feathers meeting his gaze. Blinking he looked up, finding that he was no longer alone in the warehouse. Over a dozen or so people had appeared, all of them facing him and all of them carrying a gun that seemed to be loaded with the same kind of red tufted dart as the one he'd been struck by. "And just who the fuck are y-"

His words were cut off as more darts were fired at him, striking him in his chest, shoulders, back, neck, arms and legs. For a heartbeat he stood there slightly surprised by what had just happened. He'd just killed a Coven of vampires, a hag and a demon and these mortal thought-

Without warning he suddenly pitched sideways, falling to the ground as his left leg simply cut out from under him. He felt oddly numb, now; his vision seemed to pass between blurry and focused and his sense of hearing seemed to be off, as if everything being said was from far away.

Vaguely he heard someone comment about telling someone that nothing was tougher than ketamine. But he wasn't sure what any of that actually meant. Blinking slowly he watched as a black cat appeared in his vision looking down at him for a moment before disappearing; being replaced by a boot which struck him in the face a moment later.


End file.
